Rebecca Manzi Justin Gilligan won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition with an image depicting a mosaic made up of 403 pieces of plastic recovered from the stomach of a dead Flesh-footed Shearwater
@Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Australian photographer Justin Gilligan made sure that the blunt reality of plastic pollution came into the spotlight with his dramatic shot, which won the category “Oceans: The Bigger Picture” in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
His photo is a mosaic of 403 pieces of plastic found in the stomach of a dead flesh-footed shearwater, showing the devastating effect plastic debris has on seabirds and the entire ocean ecosystem.
For years, Gilligan collaborated with Adrift Lab, a team that has been researching the harm caused to marine animals by plastic pollution. The photographer often joined them at dawn in the collection of bodies of the dead shearwater chicks on the shores of Lord Howe Island-an isolated location with a profound impact from plastic pollution.
Plastic threatens wholly ecosystems
Studies conducted by Adrift Lab revealed that about 75% of adult shearwaters and almost all chicks have plastic in their digestive tracts. Plastic pollution does not only choke or block the digestive system of seabirds.
These researchers found that plastic ingestion causes irreversible damage to the lining of the digestive tract, which they have called “plasticosis.” This in turn leaves permanent scarring that impairs the ability to feed and survive, a problem that exacerbates an already critical situation with many marine species.
Gilligan’s picture says it more candidly and eloquently: the plastic we dump into the marine environment goes on to ravage local wildlife and threatens to destroy complete ecosystems. Flesh-footed shearwaters, which feed on squid and small fish, accidentally consume fragments of plastic, mistaking it for food. Once ingested, those fragments will stay in their stomach, leading to hunger, illness, and ultimately death.
An urgent call to action
The winning photo is little more than a piece of art-it’s the ringing call to plastics reduction and ocean protection that’s called for on behalf of planetary health. Every piece of plastic left abandoned at whim to the sea has catastrophic consequences, and the shot by Gilligan was like a mirror of shared guilt for the crisis at hand. Certainly, more concrete steps are required to protect marine life, to check further damage to ecosystems.
Source: Natural History Museum
