On all of these islands, you will find bits of plastic and albatross bones together. Adult albatross eat the plastic while feeding at sea because it looks like food to them. They come back to feed their chicks by regurgitating food into their mouths. The plastics take up space that should be food thus reducing the caloric intake of the chick. The plastic can also cause damage to their digestive tract. Albatross chicks regurgitate a bolus of indigestible
fish parts and plastic every week or so. This gives researchers an opportunity to study the amount of plastics that are ingested. Many chicks die from malnutrition and plastic getting stuck in their stomach. That's why we see disposable lighters, small fishing floats, plastic bottle caps and other bits of plastic together with albatross bones.