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News / Northwest

Pacific bird refuge struggles as ocean garbage patch grows

Analysis: Garbage patch gathers debris faster than previously thought

By Associated Press
Published: November 10, 2019, 9:05pm
11 Photos
Plastic sits Oct. 22 in the decomposed carcass of a seabird on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll is a wildlife sanctuary that should be a safe haven for seabirds and other marine animals. Instead, creatures here struggle to survive as their bellies fill with plastic from faraway places.
Plastic sits Oct. 22 in the decomposed carcass of a seabird on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll is a wildlife sanctuary that should be a safe haven for seabirds and other marine animals. Instead, creatures here struggle to survive as their bellies fill with plastic from faraway places. (Photos by Caleb Jones/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — Flying into the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Midway Atoll appears out of the vast blue Pacific as a tiny oasis of coral-fringed land with pristine white sand beaches that are teeming with life.

But on the ground, there’s a different scene: plastic, pollution and death.

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