A wildlife photographer has captured a picture of a black skimmer bird feeding itschick a cigarette filter on a beach in Florida, USA.
Littering has now become a global problem with people throwing trash on the roads. Especially beachside areas where people keep throwing the plastic waste on the shore. Recently, a photographer captured a picture of a mother bird feeding cigarette butt to her chick on a Florida beach.
The picture has gone viral and has started a huge debate online. On the beaches, apart from plastic straws cigarette are the most common litter found that is harming the environment and of course the wildlife.
The picture is shared on Facebook by Karen Mason of Largo. The image is from the St Pete Beach in Florida in which a black skimmer seabird can be seen feeding its baby a cigarette butt which it probably mistaking it for food crumbs.
In her Facebook post, Karen Mason said she had happened upon the pair on St Pete beach outside Tampa last month. She urged: “If you smoke, please don’t leave your butts behind.”
By itself, cellulose acetate is very slow to degrade in our environment. Depending on the conditions of the area the cigarette butt is discarded in, it can take 18 months to 10 years for a cigarette filter to decompose. But that isn’t the worst of it, a single cigarette butt can contaminate 5 liters (1.4 gallons) of sea water, imagine what it’s going to do to that poor little birdie…
San Miguel Times Newsroom