Drowning in Plastic review - a rallying cry, but is it too late?

Wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin investigates the scale of the plastic crisis in the ocean and what we are doing about itFour hundred miles off the coast of Australia lies remote, pristine Lord Howe island: home to the largest colony of flesh-footed shearwaters on earth and a plastic-pollution horror story of 2018 proportions. The well-being of seabirds is a key indicator of the state of our blue planet and flesh-footed shearwaters eat more plastic relative to their size than any other marine creature. You probably know how this health check is going to go. If you are still getting over the albatrosses feeding their young plastic on Blue Planet 2, now is the time to go and manically recycle.In Drowning In Plastic, (BBC One)wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin watches a team of scientists examine flesh-footed shearwater chicks as they emerge from their burrows for the first time. They are just three months old and have never seen the sea. And yet, as one is made to swallow water and vomit into a bowl, 20 jagged pieces of plastic emerge. "They're gradually feeding their chicks to death," whispers Bonnin, aghast, in despair, and crying, which is pretty much how I remained for the rest of this feature-length documentary. The scientist explains that 20 pieces of plastic is not actually that much. The record, found inside a single chick, is 260. Continue reading...