These Island Birds Are So Full of Plastic They Crunch When You Touch Them

On Lord Howe Island—a remote volcanic outpost with fewer than 500 residents—tens of thousands of seabirds are filling up with plastic. So much, in fact, that their bellies literally crunch when touched.

“There is now so much plastic inside the birds that you can feel it on the outside of the animal when it is still alive,” said Dr. Jen Lavers, a marine biologist who has studied the island’s mutton birds, or shearwaters, for nearly two decades. “As you press on its belly… you hear the pieces grinding against each other,” she told ABC News Australia.

In April, Lavers and her team broke a disturbing record: 778 pieces of plastic were found inside a single 80-day-old chick. “I’m sad to say just yesterday we blew [the record] out of the water,” she said. “In one of the most pristine corners of our planet.”

That plastic load made up nearly a fifth of the chick’s body weight.

On a Remote Australian Island, the Birds Are So Full of Plastic They Crunch

To raise awareness, the researchers recorded audio of the crunching—graphic proof that these birds are turning into living maracas of marine waste. The sound is disturbing, but Lavers says it’s part of a much bigger message. “These birds have a very important story to tell,” she explained. “And what they are telling us is that their populations are in decline, that the amount of plastic they’re consuming is going up and up.”

Even politicians are getting involved. Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson traveled to the island at Lavers’s invitation. “It’s not really the kind of place you come to be shocked,” he said, “and walk away feeling a little bit traumatized.”

At the rookery, he helped researchers flush plastic from live birds. What came out included a syringe cap, a cigarette butt, and furniture hardware. “It was horrible to see. I felt a real range of emotions, from anger and sadness through to shame,” he said. “What’s been seen can’t be unseen.”

Since 2008, the number of plastics found in these seabirds has skyrocketed. Back then, most carried five to ten pieces. Now, every bird examined carries 50 or more.

Dr. Lavers calls the mutton birds a “sentinel species”—a warning. As plastics and microplastics infiltrate oceans, food chains, and even human bodies, these birds are sending a message loud and clear. You just have to listen to the crunch.