A Bristol, England-based design firm called Cod Steaks is "making waves" after creating a truly spectacular sculpture made entirely from discarded plastic water bottles (the "waves" part of the sculpture) and biodegradable willow (the whale portion of the piece), which grows abundantly in the area. But it's not the eye-catching beauty of the art piece that matters; rather, it's the message it's conveying. After seeing the depressing amount of plastic water bottles left behind after the annual Bath Marathon and Bristol 10K, Cod Steaks decided to create something incredible to look at that would also make a powerful statement: marine wildlife are literally swimming through plastic in our oceans and waterways and it's time to take a stand. Illuminating not only the issue of how recreational races over the years have become "environmental disasters," resulting in tens of thousands of discarded plastic water bottles, Cod Steaks is showing us all how crucial it is to the well-being of the marine ecosystem that we all ban single-use plastic water bottles. Sue Lipscombe, Cod Steaks lead artist, made a public statement regarding the art installation which is called The Bristol Whales: "Whales are intelligent, beautiful, charismatic animals and have become symbols of the world's oceans. Our sea of recycled plastic bottles represents the detrimental effect of plastic pollution on the ocean, which is something that all of us can act on-- today-- by reducing our consumption of single use plastics." The excessive amount of plastic in the oceans does particular damage to humpback whales, whose migration routes traverse directly through the massive Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Because they are filter feeders, they swim through miniscule pieces of plastic and consume them as they swim. Our marine wildlife are literally swimming through a "sea of plastic."

We can all take a stand and ban single-use plastic water bottles whenever possible. Glass water bottles and reusable water bottles of all sorts are now readily available for all of us, so in our opinion, there's no excuse to choose single-use plastic! Kudos to Cod Steaks for illuminating this hugely important issue in an artistic and attention-grabbing way.