Albatross chicks on Midway Atoll and other breeding colonies are being fed plastic debris by parents who mistake it for squid, causing chick mortality.
Albatross chicks fed plastic by well-intentioned parents slowly starve as their stomachs fill with indigestible material. The chick cannot expel the plastic and eventually dies from malnutrition and gut damage. Parents have no way to recognize their mistake because plastic visually resembles prey. Reducing the density of floating plastic in the North Pacific is the only meaningful welfare intervention for these chicks.