CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Washed up pieces of plastic can not only be an eyesore for many but it can also cause much harm to marine life.
This is why a sculpture of Terry the sea turtle was created with more than 6,000 pieces of plastics.
“Of course your first reaction when you see Terry in the courtyard is wow that’s a huge turtle and then you come up closer and you go, wait a minute? That’s plastic. Oh, that’s salvage plastic off of the beach,” said Art Center Executive Director Dianna Bluntzer.
Various items such as toothbrushes, bottle caps and soles of shoes can be found washed up on the Padre Island Beach. The pieces might be small but they are deadly to sea turtles and other marine life.
“They eat the plastics that fills up their stomach and they starve to death which is just heartbreaking,” said Bluntzer.
Artist and president of Washed Up Texas Connie Lovell created Terry the sculpture. Lovell and her team of volunteers collected each harmful plastic piece washed up to fulfill their message to those Terry can captivate.
“It’s toxic, and it’s toxic to them and that’s what we're doing to our ocean and we’ve got to learn different ways to dispose plastic we have got to stop saying “I have to have this made out of plastic” we’ve got to change,” Lovell said.
Terry is at the Art Center on display until Nov. 14.
