First up is ‘Bong’ which means Goby – a native fish to Vietnamese folklore. He is located at My Khe Beach in Da Nang Vietnam. Bong is made from bamboo, coconut leaves and recycled garbage. Beach goers are encouraged to feed Bong their trash in order to keep the beach and ocean clean. A group of volunteers spent about 2 months and $300 constructing Bong.
Vietnam is ranked the fourth biggest polluter of oceans in the world. They dump approximately 280,000 – 780,000 tons of plastic waste into their oceans every year. The organization who built and funded this project hopes that this will significantly help to reduce the amount of waste that enters the ocean for generations to come.
Next up is Nipsy the friendly great white shark who is made from recycled trash. Her purpose? The creators made her out of alcohol ‘nips’ to show how single use plastics are affecting marine life by being left on the beach instead of properly disposed of. Nipsy was revealed at Martha’s Vineyard in June of 2019 and her sole purpose is to help keep the beaches clean while promoting the elimination of single use plastics movement.
20 foot long Nipsey sits on a trailer so that she can be brought to various events and locations all over Marth’s Vineyard.
Over in Queensland artist David Day created this fish sculpture out of 4,000 discarded beverage containers including plastic water bottles and cans.
This sculpture tours around to state to help raise awareness and stop people from littering in Queensland.
On Botafogo beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a very large structure was made out of plastic bottles and features 3 fish breaching from the sand.
The sculptures are illuminated from the inside at night providing an excellent reminder during the day and night to be mindful of single plastic usage as well as proper disposal.
In 2017 the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago revealed a 1,600 pound Seahorse sculpture made from marine debris from the Pacific coast beaches.
“Stella” is 13 feet tall and was made out of toothbrushes, toy shovels, drink bottles, bottle caps, flip-flop cutouts, hairbrushes, brooms, baby pacifiers and even more types of trash.
Stella is part of a traveling art exhibit called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea. When this exhibit was here in South Florida, my Mom and I went to check it out. Here are the pictures that I took of the sculptures:
The attention to detail on these structures is truly amazing! I hope that these structures have a profound enough impact on the people who see them so that we can all work together to clean up our environment and keep it clean for generations to come.