Till My Ghastly Tale is Told

He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 

What's up with the trip back to high school English class? These quotes from one of my favorite poems are fitting for a video I believe everyone should see. It is the trailer for an upcoming film about Midway Island, a small piece of land in the Northern Pacific Ocean, not far from Hawaii. The albatrosses that inhabit the island seem to be living a  normal life, but in fact many of them are sick and dying. Just as the mariner killed the albatross in Coleridge's poem, humans are responsible for the deaths of thousands of these birds. These birds are apparently not picky eaters, and thanks to us, they have made plastic one of their food groups. They are eating small pieces of plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch, a place where plastic debris has collected due to the ocean currents. The plastic sits in their stomachs because they can not digest it, and it builds up until they die a slow, painful death. Before you watch the video, be warned... it's kind of graphic and pretty sad. You might not want to show it to kids. But I believe it is important to see. Hopefully it will make people think twice about littering. Remember, most waterways lead to the ocean, so trash on land can easily be washed into it. Even when trash breaks down, harmful chemical residues can still be left behind, especially in the case of plastic. In fact, smaller pieces of plastic are easier for wildlife to eat.
To find out more about this film project, visit the film's website, www.midwayfilm.com. The film is scheduled to premiere later in 2013. Keep an eye out for it.