5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

You open the stomach of a Northern Fulmar and plastic pours out.  It's not a new sight to Jan Andries van Franeker.  He  published the first evidence of plastic consumption by Northern Fulmars more than a decade ago.  When you meet him you're struck with his matter-of-fact tone about this issue, but after an our of conversation you learn that he's deeply concerned about the plight of plastic in seabirds.  His goal is to bring this awareness to everyone, from the European Parliament to elementary school children.  And that's why we were with him in Amsterdam recently.


We were invited by the Plastic Soup Foundation to lecture about our recent findings of plastic in the Southern Hemisphere. We took a break one morning to watch Franeker at a local school to show children what he finds in Fulmars.  He guided students through the dissection.  "Ewwww" was followed by "Ohhhh" as students discovered that a seemingly healthy bird had died with a gut full of plastic pellets, odd bits of multi-colored fragments, and a piece of candy wrapping.   This firsthand experience will stay with these children for the rest of their lives, and hopefully move them to change how they see plastic used in the world.