Evidence of the Destruction of Trash Island

Unfortunately, the best evidence of the destruction of Trash Island is by looking at the animals in the surrounding area. These pictures are some of the pictures Chris Jordan has captured. They are birds that have died and started decomposing, the plastics they ingested clearly shown. The birds end up eating so much plastic that they can no longer eat or drink enough to survive, and they are at risk for ingesting toxins that may still be in the plastics (Ackerman).

(Jordan)

(Jordan)

(Jordan)

(Rathert)

Though pictures are the best way to convey the obvious destruction of Trash Island, there is also a lot of evidence for the phenomenon in journal articles. Yun Zang et al. show in their article that "eating plastic by mistake or trapped by it will cause many marine animal deaths."And the evidence is clearly seen in the animals around the gyres.