Artist Statement
My message this year is seismic blasting. As you can imagine, noise pollution affects most sea life. Whales and dolphins can't communicate which can lead to death, fish eggs get disrupted, and I also learned during my research that the sounds can harm cephalopods. Seismic surveys can interfere with their migration, feeding, or other behavioral patterns. Any that live show further damage, including large, visible holes in the statocyst tissue. They can not survive. This is why I chose to depict a beautiful cephalopod with the sound waves blasting through his head. Seismic surveying for oil exploration is happening in our waters here, and we could end up with offshore oil rigs out in our bay.
