Garbage Guts

Aria the Albatross has a problem: she and her seabird friends are throwing up our discarded garbage. Determined to find out why, she sets out on a long-distance flight across the Pacific Ocean. On her journey, she meets other wildlife troubled by trash. Sea Turtle is choking on a plastic bag, Seal is trapped in a strapping band, and Whale is tangled in ghost fishing nets.

Aria masters both wind and waves, seeking the causes of marine debris and witnessing its tragic effects. Humans, she learns, are both the culprits and the solution. Learn through the eyes of an albatross as you follow Aria's adventure while she finds courage and hope amid an ocean of garbage.

The causes and effects of our pollution in oceans are revealed as a compelling message that is not only delightfully illustrated but also poetically memorable. When the result of our collective consumerism ends up fouling some of the most elegant, endangered, and remote-living of wildlife, our sense of responsibility to the oceans and its creatures must be questioned.

Garbage Guts was inspired by Dr. Heidi J. Auman's research on the effects of marine debris on Midway Atoll's Laysan albatross.

Author: Heidi J. Auman
Publisher: Heidi J. Auman
Published: 03/08/2020
Pages: 64
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 11.00h x 8.50w x 0.17d
ISBN: 9780646815473

About the Author
Auman, Heidi J.: - Dr. Heidi Auman has studied human impacts on seabirds for much of the past twenty-five years. A pioneer on the research of plastic ingestion, she lived on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge 1993-2000, studying the effects of marine debris and pollutants on Laysan albatross. Heidi has also explored plastic ingestion in sub-Antarctic and Tasmanian seabirds, chemical contamination in Great Lakes birds, and the effects of junk food on urban gulls. She has demonstrated that our ecological footprint has reached the farthest corners of the earth, often with disturbing consequences. For several years, Heidi lived on an enchanting atoll called Midway, one of the most remote points on the planet-an idyllic speck of sand in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean-but an appalling contradiction confronted her: its beaches were littered with the spew of collective human consumerism from the far corners of the globe. Upon the powdery soft white sand, the wind and waves offer up old fishing buoys, lines, nets and floats, disposable lighters, toothbrushes, shoes, bottles, and even the occasional television and bloody syringe. Heidi lived cheek-to-beak with Midway's albatrosses, studying the amounts and effects of our garbage in their guts. Sadly, she found that over 97% of these birds contained marine debris (mainly plastic) and most of it could be measured in multiple handfuls. Heidi is passionate about sharing her research discoveries from remote islands. Although she has published numerous scientific articles, she feels that few people other than academics will ever read these. As a world trailblazer on plastic ingestion in seabirds, she was compelled to write a book for a wider audience. Heidi hopes to send an important message aimed at younger readers who can champion solutions to this serious global issue.

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