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An Albatross Ambassador Teaches us about Traveling Trash

A Laysan albatross—the first of her kind at any U.S. aquarium or zoo—arrives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Part of her role is to serve as an ambassador, helping raise public awareness about the deadly diet of plastic trash that threatens seabirds across the Pacific.

Makana—her name means "gift" in native Hawaiian—had been living in Kauai. Federal wildlife officials collected Makana and nine other Laysan chicks on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge as part of an endangered species research project. But Makana suffered a wing injury when she was four months old and was unable to return to the wild. Makana appears daily in a presentation that helps visitors learn about the threats that albatrosses and other seabirds face from traveling trash. There are 22 species of albatross in the world, and 19 of them are considered at risk of extinction due as a result of man-made threats.

Learn about the Laysan albatross and plastics