Harbour Seal and Rockfish
76 cm
I found the plastic buoy at the centre of this piece on Hurst Island near the Northern tip of Vancouver Island. It was likely used in the salmon or herring gill net fishery. The two red corks on the top and bottom was donated to me by Lange, a salmon fisherman from Bristol Bay Alaska. The line it hangs on is a piece I found washed up on Nigie Island near the Northern tip of Vancouver Island. I have tied the line in a flat lanyard knot and lashed the bottom with waxed sailing twine.
On it I have painted a shy harbour seal in a kelp forest. This marine mammal can be seen from shore sometimes sunbathing on rocks and bobbing about with only their heads visible in the Ocean. These wonderful animals keep warm in the chilly North Pacific waters with a thick layer of blubber that comes from eating lots of fish, shellfish and crabs. They can sleep underwater and can hold their breath for 30 minutes. They use their long whiskers to sense their prey and are very effective predators. They can very shy creatures, when not accustomed to humans, and a diver is lucky if one of them comes to check them out briefly before darting away through the kelp forest on secret seal business. A black rockfish shares the bull kelp forest with them and orange social tunicates, white plumose anemones and green surf anemones grow along the bottom with ochre and vermillion sea stars. Clinging to the stalks of the bull kelp are brightly coloured proliferating and brooding anemones.
The Ocean is the heart and lungs of our blue planet. It is a source of infinite beauty and wonder as well as providing us with a source of renewable nutrition. Let's return the gifts we receive from our watery world by taking care of what we put into it and what we take out of it.
Thank you for supporting the creation of art from waste, 10% of the purchase price of this piece of art will be donated in your name to the Ucluelet Aquarium’s Marine Debris Initiative researching the impacts of plastic in our marine environment.