Plastic Pollution Taking Its Toll, A Haunting "Dead Whale" Washes Up On The Sea Shore In Manila

By Samantha in Nature On 30th March 2018
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#1 Plastic Pollution And Its Scary Consequences For Marine Life

We all have been reading about plastic pollution since school days and very well know the dangers plastic pollution carry for the marine life itself. But have we ever grasped the fact that how dangerous is the situation now? We use plastic items because they are convenient for us to dispose of, whether it is a water bottle or a takeout bag or a wrapper of some sort the answer for us is always plastic, as it is never a hassle for us.

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#2 The Statistics Are Jaw Dropping

According to Plastic Oceans, more than 8 million tons of plastic make their way into our ocean each year. The statistics on plastic bags consumption on yearly basis is itself very disturbing. Worldwide, 1 million bags are used every minute. A plastic bag has an average ‘life’ of 15 minutes before it becomes waste, and takes 1,000 years to decompose. Given the gravity of the situation, its high time that we realize that some action has to be taken before its too late for the marine life.

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#3 "Dead Whale" Art Piece Installed On A Popular Tourist Site, To Draw Attention Of The Public Towards The Gravity Of The Situation

The main areas facing this issue mostly are the tourists' sites. Where every day hundreds of tourists visit to experience the beauty of nature but along with it leave behind their trash. Now to tackle this grave issue, Greenpeace Philippines recently created a public art installation called "Dead Whale," that is definitely hard to ignore and will draw the attention of the public towards the art piece.

The piece is not created for beauty purpose, instead, it is a daunting reminder to the people that how the trash that they leave behind in their moment of carelessness is acting as murder weapons for the marine life.

#4 Harrowing Image Left A Deep Impact On Many People

This 50 foot "dead whale," replica that is formed from the trash of plastic pollution and filled with plastic bottles looks as if it washed up dead on the shore. This dead whale carcass look-alike was first kept along the shores of Manila Bay for a period of 5 days. The distressing art piece was mistaken as a reality by a number of people, though people soon realized that it was made up but the harrowing image definitely left a deep impact if not on many but on a handful of people.

#5 Idea Behind The Image Is Based On True Event

Though the idea behind this art piece is not at all fake and is based on a true event that happened last year where a young 38-foot-long sperm whale died after it ingested a bevvy of waste including fishnets, hooks, ropes, and steel.

Talking about the idea behind this initiative, the creative director Biboy Royong explained, "We based [Dead Whale‘s] shape, color, texture, size, and proportion on pictures of real beached whales. We even chose to show a decomposing whale so we played more with the textures on its skin using plastic trash we have collected. We wanted to surprise the community in the area. For it to work, we had to carefully craft a realistic dead whale."

#6 Art Makes A Better Statement

The organization chose Manila Bay as its target site because of the people that traverse the location and pollute the land, also taking into consideration the fact that it is the most popular tourist site. Talking about his work, Royong said, "Art makes a better statement. Seeing the dangers that are happening to our environment through a dramatic visualization urges people more to act against it."

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#7 Hopefully, This Wake-Up Call Is Going To Create A Sense Of Responsibility Among The Public

The distressing image was definitely disturbing the people and the image has been making rounds on the social media. Hopefully, the distress shown by the public won't be limited to words only and each individual will start to take responsibility for his actions and we will see a positive impact on our nature.

The Greenpeace Philipines hoping to make a lasting impact with their amazing work wrote on their Facebook page, "Listen to the dead whale’s wake-up call, look closer and see what plastic pollution does to the ocean. We hope that this installation encourages the public to take action and #RefusePlastic."