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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2018 Huge sea-life sculptures made from OCEAN’S PLASTIC TRASH A giant jellyfish sculpture made from fishing buoys and cut-up water bottles that washed up on the Oregon Coast. AP Photos/Janet McConnaughey ‘Greta the Great White Shark,’ one of six huge sea-life sculptures from a project called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea, is viewed at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. Plastics were collected on Oregon Coast By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS — Huge sculptures of sea life are dotted about New Orle- ans’ aquarium and zoo, all of them made from plastic trash that washed ashore. There’s a great white shark made partly of bottle caps and beach toys and a jelly- fish made mostly of cut-up water bottles. The artwork, part of a project called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea, is the creation of Angela Haseltine Pozzi, who started making the pieces after seeing plastic heaped by the waves onto Ore- gon’s southern coast. Pozzi was in the town of Bandon, where her grandparents had lived, mourning her first husband’s death. “I’d known its beaches all my life,” she said. “I went to the ocean to heal and found that the ocean needed healing.” She wants the scale of her creations to make people realize just how much plastic gets into the ocean — and to act on that knowledge. Signs next to each piece suggest simple ways to reduce the problem, such as not using plastic straws, reusing water bottles, and picking up other people’s litter. “Every piece of trash picked up and properly dis- posed of is a piece that will not cause harm to local environments and animals,” states the sign for “Greta the Great White Shark.” Pozzi’s aim is art that is “beautiful, and a little horrifying.” An army of volunteers in Oregon — about 10,000 since Pozzi started in 2010 — help her collect, prepare and assemble the beach trash into art. One of their wash-basins for plastic is a bathtub also found on the beach. She now has more than 70 pieces in three exhibi- tions currently traveling the U.S., and has requests from overseas. Her work has been displayed at zoos, aquariums and botani- cal gardens, and she has permanent exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and a gal- lery in Bandon. The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas is showing six sculptures, while one of a puffin is on display at the Audubon Zoo; more pieces will be added to both loca- tions in October. In addition to the shark and two jellyfish sculp- tures, there’s a walk- through whale ribcage made with bucket lids, bot- tles, buoys and bait traps; a marlin with a beak made of fishing rods; and percus- sive “Musical Seaweed.” That statue’s long leaves include metal and plastic bottle caps strung on wires so they rattle when a leaf is hit lightly. Robert and Lauryn Geo- sits of Mandeville, Loui- siana, were visiting with their three children. “This is such a great idea for people to visual- ize just how much trash is in the ocean,” said Lauryn Geosits. Her husband read from a sign while their baby slept in a stroller and Chel- sea, 7, and Preston, 8, searched the shark for the items he named: “There’s a toy car bumper, bottle caps, beach toys, a lighter …” Asked about the strang- Angela Haseltine Pozzi, of Bandon, describes her art project made from plastic trash. est piece she’s used, Pozzi said: “When you’ve pro- cessed more than 21 tons of debris into more than 70 pieces of art you’ve seen pretty much everything.” “One of the most shock- ing are bleach bottles that have bite marks from fish,” Pozzi said. A fish made entirely of fish-bitten plastic is among the pieces to be added in October. Most of the pieces com- ing to New Orleans this fall are on display at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, including a river otter, a seahorse and a clownfish in an anemone. “We are very sad to see them go, because they’ve been very successful,” said Tynnetta Qaiyim, vice president for planning and design at Shedd. She said the response has been far beyond what she expected, both in the number of pictures patrons have posted on social media and in increased conservation awareness. Qaiyim had thought the exhibit might be more interesting to coastal resi- dents, but said it also con- nects Midwesterners to the Great Lakes. “People are talking about plastics and the Great Lakes and the waterways in a way that we were hop- ing for but not really sure it would happen,” she said. In New Orleans, the sculptures are in a variety of places and will stay up through April. “Look! A jellyfish! A jellyfish!” Elliot Har- old of Chalmette shouted as he approached a stair- way below one of Pozzi’s creations. “It’s the only thing he’s liked all day,” said his grandmother, Gera Mendel. Conservation groups sue Oregon to help protect tiny seabird Clash over the marbled murrelet By STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press PORTLAND — Conserva- tion groups sued the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild- life Commission on Thursday for failing to strengthen pro- tections for the marbled mur- relet, tiny seabirds that venture inland to raise their young and depend on old-growth forests for nesting. The groups petitioned the commission in 2016 to reclas- sify the bird’s status from threatened to endangered under the state Endangered Species Act. A listing as endan- gered would require the state to develop a management plan and survival guidelines for the birds that are about 9 inches long and weigh 7 to 8 ounces. The commission denied the petition in June by a 4-2 vote, after hearing testimony from officials in timber-rich coastal counties who worried about the economic impact of restricting logging to save the birds. Com- missioners opposed to reclassi- fication said researchers from Oregon State University are in the early stages of a 10-year study about the seabird, and they wanted to wait for results. The defeat was tough for conservationists because the commission in February had accepted a recommendation to grant the petition. The marbled murrelet was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1992 and the Oregon Endangered Species Act in 1995. The species is state-en- dangered in Washington and California. In 2015, there were believed to be about 11,000 marbled murrelets in Oregon, but sur- vey numbers are uncertain because the birds have only been counted at sea and are extremely elusive in the forest. Experts believe the population has declined by more than 50 percent from historic highs. Astoria Band Boosters CAN & BOTTLE DRIVE 1 P.M.- 3 P.M. • SUNDAY, JULY 8 TH AT ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL Ch ec k th e L a b e l ! P LEASE , NO EARLY DROP - OFFS Items must have the 10 cent, OR redemption label in order to benefit the band programs The Band Boosters are the primary source of funds to keep Astoria’s school band programs functioning. Please help by dropping off your empties or making a donation. Call (503) 791-8134 or email i_want_to_help@astoriabands.org for more information. Volunteer Pick of the Week Fonzie Senior male grey shorthair What else would Fonzie be but cool And fabulous fun? Read about Oscar on Petfinder.com Sponsored By C LATSOP C OUNTY A NIMAL S HELTER 1315 SE 19 th Street, Warrenton • 861 - PETS www.dogsncats.org Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat The Clatsop Care Center Auxiliary and the residents of Clatsop Care would like to offer their sincere thanks and appreciation to Matthew Ryan, Kira Lorence, Elliott Craig, Rebecca & Destiny from the U.S. Coast Guard for their hard work at our recent car wash. And thank you to you, the public, for your donations! Though the population has been stable since 2000, Ore- gon Department of Fish and Wildlife strategy species coor- dinator Christina Donehower told the board in February that a model shows the bird has about an 80 percent chance of going extinct in Oregon by the 22nd century. WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Fre e Est Fast ima tes Call me ti Any Jeff Hale Painting • • • • Residential Commercial Cedar Roof Treatments Exterior Repaint Specialist Over 25 years local experience 503-440-2169 Jeff Hale, Contractor LICENSED BONDED INSURED CCB#179131
