Researchers made a grim discovery on a remote, "picturesque" Australian island, People reported, with a common environmental scourge to blame.

What's happening?

Lord Howe Island is the sort of pristine island paradise that graces screensavers, deemed as having "Outstanding Universal Value" by UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

A two-hour flight from New South Wales' capital city of Sydney, the volcanic island is home to the "​​most southerly true coral reef" on Earth. Lord Howe Island is notable in large part for its remarkable biodiversity. 

The government of New South Wales indicates that it supports "a high level of endemic and significant species and communities." Endemic species are defined as those confined to a single, specific location.

Unsurprisingly, the island is of interest to the government and researchers alike. Earlier this year, visiting researchers observed that even in this highly remote location, plastic pollution had become so severe that native seabirds audibly "crunched" because of it.

Ecologist Alex Bond recalled a bird that had ingested 778 pieces of plastic. He said birds examined by researchers had consumed plastic "up to and including the size of bottle caps and tetra pack lids, cutlery, clothes pegs," and, horrifyingly, small condiment bottles.

Bond described a "gut-wrenching crunching sound" produced by birds, both living and deceased, whose bodies were 20% plastic by mass. 

"In the most severely impacted birds, you can hear that while they are still alive," he added. 

Why are these findings so worrisome?

In addition to being far off the beaten path, Lord Howe Island has a population of under 500 and a strict limit of 400 tourists at a time, specifically to preserve its priceless biodiversity.

Even in those conditions, massive amounts of plastic are still making their way to the island's pristine shores, in quantities sufficient to injure and sometimes kill the rare wildlife native to it.

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Plastic pollution is an immense problem in densely populated areas, and microplastics — plastic particles under 5 millimeters in size — are a pervasive environmental contaminant worldwide.

As Bond's harrowing statements evidenced, microplastics are not an abstract danger to habitats, wildlife, or people. Studies have linked microplastic exposure to an array of negative human health outcomes.

Plastic can take centuries to break down in the environment, and Bond characterized the birds on Lord Howe Island as proverbial canaries in a coal mine.

"The things that we're seeing now in sable shearwaters are things that we're absolutely going to see in a lot more species in the years and decades to come," he warned.

What's being done about plastic pollution?

Lord Howe Island's birds are a sobering reminder that plastic pollution, irrespective of origin, pervades Earth's furthest and most unspoiled reaches.

The most effective way to curb plastic pollution as an individual is to use less plastic, and replacing plastic items with non-plastic alternatives limits direct exposure significantly.

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