More and more plastic ends up in our oceans causing a threat to its wildlife. Around 8 million tons find their way there every year Once in the ocean or on the shores it causes animals like seals and turtles to get entangled and trapped in abandoned fishing gear, six-pack rings, or plastic bags. Nearly every seabird eats plastic and even though it can pass through the system some of it ends up blocking the digestive system or damaging organs causing starvation and death.

Plastic pollution was the first threat to our oceans that I heard of when I was a kid, it was something that one could easily visualize in the mind without even seeing it, a pretty dark image for sure. I don’t remember the exact details but there was talk about an enormous area of plastic building up that would soon be its own continent. I imagined a new society that would start to live on this plastic waste and new cities would be built upon it.

My piece presents the ocean's surface in a future where plastic pollution has gotten to a point where it's visible everywhere. It covers the surface of the ocean, rolling with huge waves where dolphins like to jump and play. More and more plastic is gathering and it's constantly raining down from the sky covering the surface. The dolphins follow their nature and do what they always have done but their surroundings have changed to something completely unnatural.

Kilian Eng