Eva Petropoulou Lianou - The Sea (Prepared Angela Kosta)
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The sea Once a sailor asked a dove, how is it to fly? and the dove answered, you ask me because you are every day at sea and with your strong boat you tear the waves in two. You have a brave crew and you are not afraid of storms... Meanwhile I just fly, sometimes low, sometimes high, but I always meet clouds and planes, nothing exciting.
You tell me about your adventures...
So said the dove and the sailor, who was the captain of a boat, began to tell about the nights with the full moon and the mermaids crying on the reefs burnt with orange and red coral, to weep for their sisters or for the fortunes of travelers and the stars twinkle merrily high up there in the firmament of heaven. Years ago there lived a dolphin in the waters of the Atlantic and sang and played with the other dolphins of his tribe, until one day he woke up and nothing was the same as before. Everything changed in his neighborhood, they were found to have plastic bottles and tons of tires in every coral cave, the algae got sick and the dolphins got stuck in the deepest caves.
- But what's going on? The sea became sick, the ocean became infected, the mullets answered him as they also passed by, looking for better and cleaner waters.
- The sea got sick, but that doesn't happen, the sea is a living organism
with the power of self-healing, it has iodine and phosphorus and salt, thought the dolphin... deciding to rise to the surface, to go and see up close what exactly happened. As soon as he climbed a little higher, he saw a terrifying sight, plastic bags and bottles were floating, and tires from cars and another pile of garbage. The dolphin started swimming back and forth restlessly and doing somersaults. It's all true, he said over and over again. The sea became sick and filled with rashes and sores. I have to find a solution, but how can I?
I'm small and... as he thinks he saw the careta careta turtle carelessly swimming around, looking for food. I will ask about this careta careta turtle...
she will be able to help me, since she often rises to the surface to give birth to her young, he thought and quickly made hasty movements with his tail, to reach her..
- What are you saying, did Thalassa get sick? the loggerhead turtle grimaced as he munched on a seaweed, Since when.
Does he have a high fever?
Let's vacuum her, he replied and continued swimming towards a more fertile ground that also had plankton.
- Suction cups, what is that again? These elders talk with incomprehensible words and never explain the inexplicable to us... all their philosophies and then... we, the new generations we are lost and we don't know what we should do to find solutions!!!!
Lady Turtle Caretta
- Caretta, I don't want tips or suction cups, i need help...The Sea got sick and filled with rashes, and sores . We need to find a medical help, look around you, and stop chewing.
The loggerhead turtle stopped munching and looked around, facing a macabre sight, with plastic bags on every coral reef and plastic bottles lying on the bottom, and car tires blocking the entrance to the main door of homes of the Smyrna, of the
crabs and the starfish and a chaos was everywhere...
Those aren't viruses, the turtle said flatly and continued munching on her seaweed.
- Isn't it a virus? And how do you know that, wondered the dolphin
- I just know it, and I also know who is responsible for this downfall... Probably the people are responsible!!!
- People? What is this, swamp fish? Asked the dolphin in wonder.
- No, they are not swamp fish,
people are people.
They are different from us because they can stand and walk with their feet and move outside the water, they breathe and live by eating each other... but also us, the fishes and other animals, but they don't know how to hide their garbage, to recycle it, like we do , and they just through their carbage into the sea. They did that.
I have a bad experience with them, I see how they treat me and my children when I go to the surface to give birth. They are monsters!!!- The dolphin was scared but said determinedly, monsters or dragons, I will go fight them and send them back their garbage. The dolphin said and swam angrily towards an unknown direction.
After months it was heard in the dolphin family that a small gray dolphin was caught in a fisherman's net and died like a hero. They said it was found, swimming on the surface and very close to coasts and cities.
They said that every night he carried plastic bottles with his snout and left them on the beach, in the morning the people who went to the beach found mountains of plastic bottles and plastic bags waiting for them and they frowned and shouted and made faces and were very annoyed because they couldn't bathe or sunbathe and they went to the beginning and asked the Municipality to clean up the waste, because some unconscious people threw it on the shore, and it prevents them from sitting comfortably or drinking their coffee, they couldn't from the stench.
The municipality called the garbage trucks and collected 3 truckloads of plastic, and he didn't know where to take it, since he himself knew that plastic doesn't dissolve easily and takes thousands of years to decompose, but wherever he throws it or buries it, it will be harmful to the environment. However the whole story was, he ordered the trucks of waste to be taken to the dump and melted down. Every night the dolphin continued to carry whatever plastic bag or other plastic he found thrown on the bottom and in the yard of the dolphin' s house.
He also carried bottles and tin cans of soft drinks, he had also found friends, and the caretta-caretta turtle, and a couple of octopuses were coming to help him in this whole business. But no matter how much they emptied the bottom and how much they tried, the next day, they still found empty plastic bottles buried in the sand and mixed with their food. Yesterday, the Whale almost swallowed a soft drink cap and a small plastic spoon, they didn't know where all this dirt was coming from, until one day, the loggerhead turtle, who was around the world, explained to them that this was garbage of the human and throw all into all the seas.
All the fish have moved out of their caves and gone to other coral caves to stay. The loggerhead turtle said that the seas have no more plankton and much of the algae has been poisoned.
- But we can't live like this, in uncertainty and misery, said the dolphin angrily. We have to show them, that we are down here living with our families and the sea is getting sicker day by day.
- And what should we do? Asked the turtle, they have destroyed everything the forests and the air. They will never stop... now they will destroy the sea.
- Should we act, should we send a message to these people? - But how; The turtle once said. There are many of them and they don't speak the same language as us. They don't understand us.
- They understand us, insisted the dolphin. There are some of them, the little people who understand us. I feel it. We need to alert the little people to help us. To stop throwing their garbage into our sea. We will find a way. We have to if we want to stay alive and with clean seas. - How are you so sure? Caretta-caretta turtle replied. - Some time ago I traveled with my family to see distant relatives,
- Our dolphin cousins, who live on a piece of land that is washed by the sea. There I had a strange encounter with a small man, I guess, I didn't know what kind of animal it was, because I didn't understand his speech and he didn't come to the sea, only I was approaching the shore... - You're still alive, you were lucky. People usually kill dolphins and all other fish, either for food or to make fertilizers for their skin. Monsters I tell you, I know them well, who am forced to wait long nights for them to leave, so that I can go lay my eggs and then I quickly run away and leave the unfortunates to their fate...
They are all monsters, continued the Caretta turtle.
- I believe in this little man, he didn't hurt me, nor did he try to imprison me. We played very often and he taught me many tricks too, I will try to find him and give him a message, the dolphin continued his thoughts optimistically.
If I manage to get to shore again, there will be a way to send him a message. So I'll tell you, people spend hours at the sea, on days when it's always sunny. They sit lying down, and sometimes they turn to the right, sometimes to the left, on huge quilts, I often see them, said the turtle-caretta-caretta. It will be your only chance to send them a message, but only to the little people. I will tell you what you will do, you will find a glass bottle, it will surely be there near the coral reefs, you will bring it here and tell the seahorses and the cuttlefish to come to my house.
- But for what reason? He asked the surprised dolphin.-I have an idea, the turtle said meaningfully and continued to chew her seaweed. So it happened, when the sun's rays were no longer visible, they all gathered in the coral cave of the caretta-caretta turtle. She opened her desk and took two feathers and a piece of paper, she told the cuttlefish to put as much force as she could and blow her ink over the feathers, she began to write and write on this paper and when she had finished folded and put them in the glass bottle that the dolphin holds for them. He turned to the seahorses and told them in a determined voice, now you know what to do.
The sea-horses galloped away with the bottle fastened between them, they swam for some time, until it was daylight when they reached a shore. With an acrobatic figure, they threw the glass bottle towards the shore and it went and got stuck, between some deckchairs, where a family was. A child who was carelessly playing with his buckets a little further, went to collect stones and shells and found the glass bottle. He took it and took it to his grandfather, look what I found, grandfather, a glass bottle with a message inside, it must be a treasure. Grandfather took the bottle, opened the cap and carefully took out the note and read aloud:
Here in this blue land that we inhabit, and you call the sea, we live before you are even born, before you even learn to walk, before you even know what you are? We not disturb you ,you not care.
We demand
Stop throwing your trash here,
stop throwing your plastic waste in our yard and poisoning our food. Stop right now!»
Signature
The creatures of the sea
Dolphins - whales - sharks
Corals and algae.
Prepared Angela Kosta
