Whales sculpture marks Bristol as UK’s first European Green Capital

A sculpture of whales has been unveiled in Bristol’s Millennium Square to mark the city’s status as the UK’s first European Green Capital Photo: PA/Rex Features

July 16^th, 2015. Bristol’s whales sculpture is made of willow and 70,000 plastic bottles to highlight threat of plastic pollution to world’s oceans

“Oh, man! admire the whale,” says Ishmael in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

There’s something to admire in Bristol now: a sculpture of two life size whales made from willow and 70,000 plastic bottles, which has been unveiled to mark the city’s status as the UK’s first European Green Capital.

The artwork, named The Bristol Whales, aims to highlight the threat to the world’s fragile oceans from plastic pollution, particularly plastic bags and food and drink packaging.

Made from willow harvested in Somerset, the six-tonne sculpture depicts a blue whale and a humpback whale swimming through an ‘ocean’ of 70,000 plastic bottles, collected from the Bristol Half Marathon and Bristol 10k race.

The willow will naturally biodegrade over time.

Globally, eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in oceans each year, equivalent to the body weight of 45,000 blue whales.

The whale was originally intended to be life-size but Bristol Green Capital decided that was not practical. The artwork now features an 18-foot tail and a 32-foot head.

Sue Lipscombe, managing director of Cod Steaks, which designed and built the artwork with Artists Project Earth, told PA: “Whales are intelligent, beautiful, charismatic animals – they’ve become symbols of the world’s oceans. They have a physical strength but they also represent resilience, the potential for recovery, provided we as custodians of the oceans take the right steps to protect them. We’re confident that this sculpture will fuel discussion and debate about plastics in the ocean.”

Britons spend more than £1.5 billion on bottled water each year, sending 15 million bottles to landfill each day.

The Bristol Whales will be situated in the city’s Millennium Square until 1 September.

The eye of a whale made from willow PA

The Bristol Whales sculpture at night REX FEATURES

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