♪ [ singing in spanish ] [ applause ] tonight, we journey to one of the most remote places on the planet. our ashan singh goes inside groundbreaking research being done here on birds to solve a mystery. >> this is tinder. bird tinder. >> bird tinder. >> yeah, they're finding each other. they're doing their thing. >> byron: why what's happening on this tiny island matters to

us all. >> they're an indicator species and in this case it could be indicating what might be happening inside you or me. >> byron: plus, the scott mcclellan piecing together the dangers of our oceans killing these birds. why it's so personal to them. >> oh, look at your foot. it's bended too. this is unbelievable. >> it's when you think it can't get worse, can't be harder, it gets harder. >> byron: is there anything the world can do? this special edition of "nightline," "what's killing the birds"? we'll be right back. hand washing dishes? switch to your dishwasher and cascade platinum plus. all you have to do is scrape, load, and you're done! cascade platinum plus. dare to dish differently. - bye, bye cough. - later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? hashtag still not coughing?! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough,

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with a qualifying internet package. call, or go online today to learn more. ♪ >> ashan: good evening. thank you for joining for this special edition of "nightline." ashan singh went around the world to take a deep dive on a issue that concerns us all, the environment and your timing couldn't have been better with world leaders meeting this week at the united nations annual climate conference in dubai and you looked at birds? >> ashan: that's right and embedded with a team off the coast of australia and believe there is a direct and dangerous link between the health of our oceans and our feathered friends. these researchers' work is detailed. the birds are beautiful and, byron, all of it a potential game changer. >> byron: let's take a look. >> ashan: deep in the heart of

this remote paradise in the middle of the pacific ocean lies a sickness. it's killing one of nature's moist important sentinels, the flash-footed cheer waters. here scott mcclellan are doing critical research trying to answer some of the most consequential questions like the impact of pollution. >> this is the headquarters of pollution research for the world if we want to understand how it affects populations. >> ashan: and how those answers could potentially impact all of us. >> they're like the canary in the coal mine. they're an indicator species and in this case it could be indicating what might be happening inside you or me. >> no, before you escape. >> ashan: hoping the research will spark a global call to action. >> no one is immune and it's not somebody else's problem. it is everyone's problem. >> ashan: hundreds of miles off

the eastern coast of australia, surrounded by the sea lies a small picturesque paradise. >> we're living in a national park that doesn't happen anywhere else in australia. >> ashan: lord howell island born from volcanic fire and shaped by water. from new york, it couldn't be a farther flight from around the globe and just when you think it's over, this puddle jumper departing from sydney serves as your chariot to a truly remote experience that reminds you of "jurassic park." >> often called the galapagos of australia because it's one of the most diverse bird colonies in australia. >> ashan: so many, in fact, birds outnumber humans on the island. just over six miles long and a little more than a mile across at its widest point, fewer than 400 people call lord howell home. but even here, a familiar man-made culprit. what most people don't know is

right here is one of the front lines of plastic pollution. we're spending a week at this unesco world heritage site to see firsthand this research undertaken in the field, not a controlled laboratory environment. >> there really isn't any of the data set like this anywhere in the world where along with species impacted by plastic has been followed so intensely and where we can link something as important as survival rates to the ingestion of plastic. >> ashan: for nearly a decade two scottientists have been relentless in their quest to understanding the impact of plastics. how did you guys notice your water as sort of this barometer species for understanding what's going on? >> i think seabirds in general have really demonstrated themselves to be this really reliable indicator, which is kind of a natural evolution we would also use them to monitor

plastic pollution considering that they interact with it so extensively. >> reporter: while the consequences of global warming, record high global temperatures, record high greenhouse gases and sea level rise have become more frequent and more urgent, what labors and bond are studying are no less important. >> to be the ones who can answer this question of what does plastic do to something as so fundamental to a species or populations persistence is sur viechl rival is exciting. >> ashan: this is one of its main breeding grounds. a medium dark feathered sea bird with a hooked bill but they have become known for one sad trait. one of the most plastic contaminated species in the world. >> the overall trend is that the amount of birds eating plastic is going up, and that basically tells us that as a global community, we are not doing enough to rein in our plastic

consumption and to prevent plastics from getting out in the marine environment. >> ashan: they have found evidence of plastic causes problems to their digestive tract and called it plasticosis. >> it is a disease that takes place on the inside. >> okay, okay, okay. >> ashan: it begins when they take the chicks and flushes their stomach and counting the pieces of plastic passed on by parents through feeding. >> we thought the record from 2011, 276 pieces in the tiny little bird is huge and then this year 2023 it all changed. 403 pieces of plastics in a 90-day-old baby seabird. >> ashan: the chicks then embark on a grueling migration across the blue horizon. five or so years later their biological clock calls them home.

>> this is tinder. bird tinder. >> ashan: this is bird tinder. >> they're finding each other. they're doing their thing. >> ashan: for one week during spring on lord howell which falls during october in the southern hemisphere labors and bond host a welcome party. >> can i see your feet please. >> ashan: searching for any banded birds returning. >> the hypothesis is birds that have a lot of plastic in it probably don't make it so we expect the birds to come back to be the ones that didn't have a lot of plastic in them as a chick. >> ashan: catch a banded bird, collect some samples then compare it to previous data. >> plenty of bird bands. >> excellent. >> should have more than enough for tonight. usual spot. >> ashan: it's the first night and as the scientists degree significant nate an assistant. >> i'm ready to rock. >> ashan: i'm not sure what to expect. the birds are nocturnal creatures complicating our observations and when they land, they come in hot.

>> whoa, whoa, whoa. [ laughter ] >> he's got one. >> everybody, don't move for a second. all right. the hunt continues. ooh, you come straight to me, thank you. got him. we have been -- >> 64541. that's five digit, right? >> perfect. so this is one of the biers i banded in 2011. hello, we've caught you before. welcome back. grab a couple of feathers, grab maybe two at a time. ooh. how did you do? >> three. >> perfect. >> good? >> rock star. >> ashan: in the pursuit of science hand bird number two, battle scars. >> bitten a little bit. >> ashan: before long -- >> it's actually kind of nice. >> ashan: a record-breaking nine

banded birds returning to the island on a single night. >> our previous record was six. we got nine, really happy with that. >> ashan: what did you notice about the birds we were able to take a look at? >> yeah, i mean they're looking pretty healthy. >> ashan: early the next morning initial analysis of last night's research. >> first bird is number 64541. >> wow. that bird was banded in 2011. >> sweet. >> 12 years ago and any guesses on the amount of plastic he might have ingested? >> probably not very much would be my guess. >> ashan: just by being there, their success stories. >> they are the quite literally the survivors who in a lot of cases beaten the odds and have gone away for years. they figured out how to feed for themselves. >> ashan: a small victory for the scientists who say less than 10% of the birds they banded return because of ingesting plastic. >> turns out when you stuff the stomach full of plastic, those

critical functions, those critical organs break down. they are damaged to the point they nothing longer work. >> ashan: approximately 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters our blue world every year. since it never disintegrate, just breaks down into smaller bits coated in blank ton and algae they start looking and smelling like dinner. >> if you consumed more than about on average four or five pieces of plastic, i'd say even probably less than that for the most part we never see you again. >> ashan: wow. >> this data is showing it really doesn't take the ingestion of much plastic to tip these birds over an edge to the point that it affects their ability to feed and fly and fledge successfully and survive those critical first couple of years at sea. they simply don't come back to lord howe island. >> ashan: to see how much plastic they have ingested, we don't need to look far.

>> there's that one. big blue bottle cap there. if we have even a look around in here for a second. >> ashan: straight up, a lot of caps. this is all plastic brought back by the birds and gets deposited here either as birds die or as the parents regurgitate it. yeah, it definitely says it's a bigger problem than i think we think about most of the time. >> ashan: in the course of any research in the wild, the variables always appear unexpectedly. >> oh, my gosh. we have an entangled bird. very badly entangled. oh, look at your foot. oh, it's banded too. oh, this is unbelievable. oh, no. >> ashan: should i mark that? >> yeah, just marking it to see. >> ashan: when we come back, if the dead could speak, what secrets would they reveal? >> even this one has black

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>> ashan: one night three banded dead birds. in all their years there, there's never been a shortage of evidence for dr. jennifer laver and dr. alex bond. >> we got what? >> 87290. >> 879290. got it. >> 520. >> not amazing but not terrible. next. >> all right. >> does he have any plastic? >> does he have any plastic? >> his stomach looks very empty. very healthy, though. those organs all look very healthy. >> ashan: a bittersweet moment fo the scientists who rarely see these biers die from natural cause. >> probably one of the most confronting things for our team over time, we find it harder and harder every year to find birds

that contain little or no plastic, so from a pure science perspective, it's made things really hard to study how plastic impacts species when you can't find any individuals that don't contain any. >> ashan: for dr. lavers, the threat to the shearwaters has become personal. >> thank you, perfect. >> ashan: her lifelong research and determination to keep the dangers of plastic pollution front and center in people's minds has come at a cost. what are the tough days like for people in your line of work? >> just when you think it can't get worse, can't be harder, it gets harder. it's not just my own mental health i have to worry about. my young students, bright-eyed. bushy-tailed. 20 years old, going to lord howe island and in two or three days they're in tears. we feel small in these moments. >> ashan: it's not just the

scientists concerned about our reliance on plastic. >> the amount of plastic we pick up on off the bedsheet. the amount of marker plastic in the shearwaters, all of these things, we don't produce any of them, but a lot of them end up here. >> we see it here every day, picking up plastic off the beach that's washed in from china or picking up little glow sticks that are off fishing nets, thousands of kilometers from here. >> ashan: does it shock you the way the rest of the world kind of uses plastic and consumes and -- >> yeah. >> just like chucks it out and stuff, yeah. >> yeah, say, 30, 40, 50 year, still there so i wonder what it will be like in 50 years from now. >> ashan: how do we make people care about plasticosis? >> at the end of the day some will care, some won't. we are further along internationally in terms of our

understanding of the effects of plastic and more importantly it's regulated more than any time in history. it's nice to have the broader scientific community recognize this for the problem we thought it was 10, 15 years >> ashan: this is -- wow. how is tonight going? >> so much quieter in the last couple of nights. only two bands in about an hour's worth of searching, and more plastic than banded birds. >> ashan: a grim reality for species that might soon only exist in memory. >> plastics does not respect man-made boundary so your waste becomes mine and mine becomes yours and we have to talk. >> hello. >> ashan: you have such a noticeable spark in your eyes when you're talking about the shearwaters. >> i love that they kind of fly under the radar and probably don't get all of the attention that they deserve.

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♪ >> ashan: finally tonight, how we captured those incredible scenes and seabirds on lord howe island. hopefully by now you recognize the star of this show, the flesh-footed shearwaters. athletic, sometimes clumsy and quick. maybe a little too quick when you're trying to get a close-up. our crew started with a couple of tries. >> oh, he's one. he's one. >> ashan: okay, in all honesty, many attempts. finally after waiting patiently and some willing winged participants, we got our shot. ♪

>> byron: our thanks to ash and the whole team. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full end stoeds on hulu and see you right back at the same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america. good night.