It all begins with plastic — lots and lots of plastic. Years ago in that iconic film “The Graduate,” it was the one word to remember that would ensure our success in the future. ADVERTISING It all begins with plastic
It all begins with plastic — lots and lots of plastic. Years ago in that iconic film “The Graduate,” it was the one word to remember that would ensure our success in the future.
How prophetic it might be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Fast forward to a small atoll in the middle of the Pacific. Midway Atoll hosts more than a million nesting Laysan albatrosses each year, along with tons of marine debris. Nets, buoys and tons of plastic trash wash onto beaches and share the 2.4 square miles with nesting albatross.
The albatross parents often swallow the plastic trash and regurgitate it to their young. Yet, amazingly, the albatrosses thrive. It’s a scene that is at best troubling.
Amid the flotsam and injured albatross is Susan Scott, a volunteer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1989. Scott has taken up the story of marine debris meets albatross, and through her art is telling the tale. Want to learn more?
Join Scott for her presentation, “From Gloom to Bloom: An Albatross Story,” from 7-9 p.m. July 30 at Volcano Art Center’s Great Room. Scott will share photos of her work with Midway’s albatrosses and explain how she uses the plastics littering their nests to educate people through art.
The presentation is free; donations gladly accepted. Scott also will talk about her sailing trip and work in Palmyra, the subject of her book “Call Me Captain.”
Scott’s mosaics and other art pieces are the result of group recycling efforts.
“Friends help me collect the cigarette lighters at Tern Island, Laysan, Midway and Kure,” Scott said. “On Oahu beaches, friends, neighbors and strangers join me in picking up the blue and green plastic pieces that make sky, sea and lagoons of the scenes.”
No one knows how so many lighters get into the open ocean. One theory of why the lighters attract albatrosses is that flying fish attach their eggs to the lighters. Flying fish eggs are a significant part of the Laysan albatross diet.
Scott wants her art to remind people that plastic is not the enemy. Used wisely, it’s an asset. What’s bad are the thoughtless ways people waste and discard it. Her art is not for sale. Instead, she shares it for education and conservation purposes.
For more information about the presentation, visit www.volcanoartcenter.org.
