Plankton should be viewed as aquatic heroes | Letter to the editor

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Seventy percent of the Earth is covered in water. Billions of microscopic plants and animals floating at the ocean’s surface provide the majority of the oxygen we breathe while sustaining all life in the sea. 

Although invisible, plankton are critically important to the survival of life on Earth and in need of our support. My goal is to create artistic opportunities for people to engage with these tiny organisms and better understand them.

Because children will inherit the responsibility of our threatened oceans, my work is especially concerned with providing playful and tactile sculptures to spark their imaginations and inspire stewardship.

Whales and sea otters have long been ocean icons for kids, but plankton provide new and unusual characters that have many of the superpowers that delight children. Flashing lights, shape-shifting, carbon-guzzling, and, for better or worse — invisibility. It’s time for plankton to become visible and recognized as the aquatic heroes that they are.

With a 12-foot sea star larva soon to be installed at the JUMP! Playground in HJ Carroll Park, kids could have twice the planktonic fun if their very own “Crab Louie” was installed at Pope Park.

Port Townsend residents should know that I am proposing a loan of this piece that can easily be removed after a year.

The rendering in last week’s paper is not mine and the scale is inaccurate. The top of the head is 4 feet. The tip of the spine or horn is 8 feet.

Rebecca Welti
PORT TOWNSEND