It was the albatross that lead Dame Ellen MacArthur down her own Road to Damascus and here, in an image we are assured is completely undoctored, is the most poignant reminder that we neglect our responsibilities as the ocean’s keeper to our shame.

This is one of a collection of images shot by photographer Chris Jordan on the Midway Atoll, 2,000 miles from the nearest land in the middle of the north Pacific. Adult albatrosses comb the polluted ocean for food, or what looks like it, fly back to their nests and regurgitate discarded plastic for their chicks.

‘On this diet of human trash,’ said Jordan, ‘every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. Not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries.’

Click here to see more chastening images on Chris Jordan’s website.