MEmorial on Litter and Garbage: Near and Inside the Oceans

 To me, a MEmorial is a memorial that can be recreated in place of a different memorial. The MEmorial that I chose to replace was the plastic whale that is located in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The memorial that I am going to replace it with is going to be a sea turtle, with trash around it. The turtle will also have a straw that is hanging out of its nose to help symbolize how extreme things can be. There are many other MEmorials in the world, our Professor has made one and he still has it to this day. MEmorials can help relay other messages as well, if a statue were to be replaced people are going to notice. Some people are not used to having things be different, that is why I think that replacing MEmorials around the world will help everyone.

 The word memorial means something that is dedicated to someone or something that has done something great or has served a great cause. There are plenty of memorials in the world that showcase all sorts of great things humans have done. My personal favorite memorial is the Jackie Robinson Memorial. Jackie was the first African American to play professional baseball. To me, a memorial has been placed for my Mother back in my hometown at our baseball field because of all the great accomplishments she had achieved for our field.  A memorial can be anything you want it to be, my Mothers memorial is a bench. It is nothing too crazy it is just a little thing to remind everyone that someone great has left their legacy on people for the future. There are things that people value and care a lot for that is what the memorial is usually meant to signify. 

 I think that the mindset that people should have the mindset to want to do better in the aspect of making the ocean a clean and safe place. The message should relay something along the lines of helping others maintain the trash that they leave on the beach. Also, there should be an effort to add garbage cans as well as maintenance crews that are on top of those things. With just that effort I believe that things can be cleaned up tremendously, a little help goes a long way. There are currently people that do these beach cleanups but some people choose not to join. It is a nice breath of fresh air, knowing that there are still people that are willing to take the time to maintain such things.  I believe that if we work together as a world animals and other life forms in the ocean can to begin to thrive again. 

 I think that this new monument will help raise awareness of a problem that is becoming worse and worse each day. The statue is going to be something that is very large and eyecatching. The world seems to not understand that the problem is getting worse and that things need to change. The giant turtle with trash and straw near it will help show what turtles go through. The constant confusion of not knowing what is food and what isn't is hard for them. Numerous amounts of turtles die each year because of pieces of plastic mistaken for food. As stated earlier, marine life is not the only thing that is affected, Albatross is also often affected because of the plastic that the fish eat. There is a huge cycle of life in the marine world, the constant circle of eating plastics and other things is going to have effects on their babies.

 The quote that I chose is "The sea is the universal sewer" - by Jacques Yves Cousteau. The reason that I chose this quote was to symbolize what the world thinks that the sea is used as a dumpster. It is a deep quote that really shows what goes on with sea waste. The man that said this quote is an oceanographer, an oceanographer " Oceanography covers a wide range of topics, including marine life and ecosystems, ocean circulation, plate tectonics and the geology of the seafloor, and the chemical and physical properties of the ocean. " (OceanService.NOAA)  These people often get to see the hard truth with things like trash and harmed animals. The time that is spent, underneath the water up close and personal can become frustrating when all you are seeing is trash. The ocean is a beautiful thing and it is very unfortunate.

 A leader that I have found that supports the act of cleaning up sea waste is Vivien Li. Vivien has spent 25 years as an advocate for clean water and urban waterfronts. She started her career in Boston, MA. After that, she became the president of the (TBHA) The Boston Harbor Association, which is a non-profit dedicated to cleaning up what was once the world's dirtiest harbor. Li also helped make what was called the Harbor Walk, this was a 38-mile wide public walkway through Boston Harbor. Although this is not California she went the extra mile, no pun intended to make sure that the harbor was spotless and maintained from the trash. In 2015 she left TBHA to become the president of and CEO of "RiverLife". This is also a nonprofit based out of Philadelphia which is used for restoring the waterfronts in Philly. 

 A source that I have found that really helped me realize what was going on with the sea and the waste inside of it was (CondorFerries.co.uk). They broke down many statistics with not only the sea life but the birds that also use the fish as food. 98% of Albatross have ingested at least some kind of plastic at some point in their lives. "They mistake microplastics for fish eggs". Another website that I have found very helpful is the website (iucn.org). They helped me realize that there are a lot more things that affect animals other than just plastic. They break things down more in the aspect of ways to prevent the trash from getting into the ocean. They helped me with a diagram on how to fix waste using the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine sources. Another crazy thing to think about is that plastic pollution threatens food safety and quality, human health, and coastal tourism, and ...

 The primary imagery of the statue is going to be a giant sea turtle with a piece of plastic out of its nose. The reason that I am choosing to do this as a monument is that the sea turtles are something that symbolizes peace and calmness as well as wisdom and good luck. The sea turtle is viewed as a creature that does no harm to other animals but seems to be the most affected animal.  I want the statue to be made out of bronze or some kind of long-lasting metal, the reason for this is so that the statue can be preserved over a long period of time. Having it made out of metal will also help with its weight. This can be helpful if someone were to maybe bump the statue and it were to fall over.  The visual overview of this statue is going to try and help prevent the amount of trash and other things that are making the sea a more dangerous place to live for marine life. 

   The monument that is currently standing at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, is a whale that is made out of plastic. The message is trying to imply that sea waste needs to be cleaned up and needs to be eliminated. The consistency of trash in the ocean is brought upon by people just throwing garbage on the ground, as well as ships and cargo liners that leave their garbage behind.  According to (CondorFerries.co.uk) There are 100 million marine animals that die each year from just plastic waste alone, next that there are over 100,000 marine animals that die yearly from just getting tangled in plastic. Sea Turtles are often snacking on jellyfish for their main source of food, plastic bags are confused with jellyfish and turtles swallow plastic instead of food. Certain locations are known as "dead zones" where animals tend to die the most because of the plastic waste. When looking at the ocean it can seem like a place that goes forever and there would not be a halt to the way of ...

     (Proposed Object, Proposed Location, Why here, Why this Place?)                  To show more awareness of the rising rates of garbage and litter in the oceans, I propose that there is another statue placed in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This statue is showing a good cause already, one of the biggest problems with this statue is that people don't really understand what it symbolizes. The current statue is a whale made out of 300,000 lbs of plastic. The statue is massive and catches people's attention, but it doesn't get the message across.                The statue that I am proposing to place on the spot of the current statue, is a sea turtle with a straw in its nostril surrounded by garbage. The reason I am choosing this as the new statue is that it will help get the message across. Sea turtles are known, adored, and seen by everyone. There is something that will tug on th...