Activity: Albatross Bolus Dissection

Objective Students will dissect a regurgitated bolus a Laysan Albatross from Midway Atoll and identify the colors and quantity of ingested plastic in order to directly observe the human impact on marine life.




Left: Laysan Albatross adult feeding it's chick on Kure Atoll, Northwest Hawaiian Islands.
Right: Stomach contents of an albatross chick found dead on Kure Atoll. Weight of stomach was
370 grams, of which 270 grams were plastic (including two cigarette lighters visible in photo).
Photo courtesy of Irene Kinan.


California Science Standards:
9-12 grades, Ecology 6a,b
9-12 grades, Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry 10a,b
9-12 grades, Investigation and Experimentation 1m

Materials: Procedure:
  1. Read "Trashed" by Captain Charles Moore in order to understand the problem of plastic marine debris.
  2. Using photographs of 4 boluses, begin counting fragments in each color category.
  3. Graph your data.
  4. Answer all questions.


Quantity of Colored Debris in Albatross Bolus
100




75




50




25

20

15

10

5

0
Blue/green
Black/Gray
White/Yellow
Red/Orange
Brown/Tan



Questions:
  1. What is the most common color? __________ Least common __________?









  2. Give three reasons why one color is most abundant in the bolus.









  3. Would it be better if the entire class averaged their data together? Why?









More information about Plastic and Albatross
http://orvalguita.googlepages.com/learnmore2
www.oikonos.org/projects/albatross.htm



You may click the images below to view a higher resolution copy of the photo.

Laysan Albatross bolus #1





Laysan Albatross bolus #2





Laysan Albatross bolus #3





Laysan Albatross bolus #4