Giant sharks, whales, and turtles — oh my! This nonprofit art project is making giant sea creatures out of plastic pollution. Special thanks to The Washed Ashore Project.
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00:00♪
00:28We invented this amazing thing that's, you know, durable and waterproof and, you know,
00:33lasts forever and, you know, it can save lives, it can do all these great things,
00:37but it never came with a warning label that it will last forever.
00:42♪
00:57The real issue is we're now even finding microplastics in plankton.
01:02That's the whole food chain.
01:03I didn't know about marine debris, I didn't understand what the issue was
01:06because I hadn't ever studied it or thought about it.
01:09One day I saw all these people picking up rocks and agates all near the shoreline
01:18and then over to my left I saw this long line of marine debris
01:23that was like a mosaic of colors up the line
01:26and I was really horrified.
01:28I thought, what if we make giant animals that they can't ignore
01:33and it'll pull people in and then we can teach them about this problem
01:36and maybe we can make a difference.
01:38♪
01:51I work with thousands and thousands of volunteers and school kids
01:55and everybody helps build these sculptures.
01:58We get garbage just all the time and we have a place where people just drop it off
02:02and then they go into bins and we hose and wash.
02:05We have a workshop where people could come in, just drop in at any time of day,
02:10walk into the workshop and sit down and put things on a wire
02:14or stitch things with wire onto a screen.
02:17The heads of the animals are my thing that I do.
02:20It's really important to get the personality
02:22and I want them looking right in your eyes
02:24so that they can connect with the viewer and wake them up and reach their heart.
02:28At least once a week we have someone who's in our exhibit hall who just starts crying
02:33and they're like, I have to change my ways.
02:36I need to stop using so much plastic.
02:38♪
02:44We've got to find the positive.
02:46We have to realize that, first of all, humans embedded plastic
02:50and humans are smart and we do have good hearts.
02:53Most of us do and we don't want to kill the oceans.
02:57We just need to keep protecting it.