The photo above was taken by a Surfrider member on the beach in Ventura, California. It shows a dead cormorant in the wrackline, a plastic grocery bag wrapped securely around its head and neck. I’m not sure how much more needs to be said about this.

Except to say that this is what “convenient” looks like. Not only is the bag disposable; the wildlife is too. Proponents of the use of these plastic bags insist that they are not “single-use” items, that there are plenty of secondary uses as well. This particular bag was reused to kill a cormorant. Others are used to suffocate marine mammals and asphyxiate sea turtles but these tragedies usually happen far away from the public eye. This one just happened to get caught on film.

Something to think about the next time you’re in the grocery store.