Craftsperson Makes Fish Sculpture out of Trash He Collected from Beach

Photo and story: AA

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A mosaic stone maker in Reyhanlı district of the southern Hatay province has made a fish sculpture from plastic trash he collected from the beach.

After collecting plastic waste from the beach and bringing them to his workshop for two months, Mervan Altınorak made the sculpture that has a length of three meters and a height of two meters.

Altınorak said he wanted to spread a message about environmental awareness and to support the government's zero waste project.

Plastic pollution in the seas

Forty-four percent of the fish that were examined in Turkey had microplastics in their stomachs, according to a Greenpeace Mediterranean report released in October.

Examinations on five types of "commercial" fish (gray mullet, red mullet, striped seabream, striped red mullet and saurel) showed that each fish had an average 1.08 microplastics in their stomachs.

Microplastics were also seen in 91.2 percent of stuffed mussels and 18.8 percent of the shrimps, according to the report. (DB/VK)