Cleaning the Sea

The Habaneras shopping centre in Torrevieja has launched a poignant display, coinciding with World Environment Day, of a shark ingesting plastic litter.

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Using the hashtag #YoSoyTorrevieja, the campaign aims at raising awareness of waste, particularly plastic, and the harm it does to the marine environment.

The Habaneras shark is made from wire mesh and is doubling us as a receptacle for plastic bottles, and once full, will seek to highlight the amount of deadly plastic marine creatures are investing, mostly thanks to poor disposal techniques of the planet´s human inhabitants.

The display has gone a step further and is promoting cycling as a more eco-friendly means of transport, and the use of bags for life, rather than disposable plastic. In addition, the centre is launching “Shark Patrol”, a group of volunteers who will take to the beaches and the sea and collect litter, although you don´t have to be a part of a group to do that, each and every one of us can do our bit by picking up or taking away just a single piece of litter each day, as well as our own of course.

The effects on the marine eco system may not seem to be on our doorstep, but the human destruction is going far deeper than plastic waste disposal, for an environment that needs to be so delicately balanced.

At the moment, chemists in the area are stocking up on jellyfish sting treatments in preparation for another invasion of the coastline this year. These creatures would not normally come so close to the beach, but as overfishing is reducing their natural food supply they are forced to move to different areas, and inevitably find themselves increasingly close to the shore.

We might feel that there is nothing we can do to help Mother Nature, but just the simplest f tasks can make a difference. Picking up litter, checking before you plant any new species that they are not invasive, shopping local to reduce our transport-based carbon footprint, using reusable bags, or not using any bags at times. Ask yourself, for example, do I really need a plastic bag for those bananas which already come with their own, natural, biodegradable packaging.

Every little helps and we can all play our part, meanwhile, go and visit the shark in Habaneras, ad remember that these beautiful creatures also live on our coastline, we don´t want to interfere with their home, any more than you would probably want them to interfere with ours.

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