Humpback Whale

100 cm

This buoy was found by my friends Bill and Annie while they were beach combing. It likely was used in the prawn or crab commercial or recreational fishery to mark where traps had been placed on the sea floor. The line was donated to me by a local fisherman. I have tied it in a figure 8 knot and lashed the ends with waxed sailing twine.

On this float I have painted a a humpback whale swimming through a golden bull kelp forest on a sunny day. The buoyant carbon monoxide filled bulbs, hold the fronds of this brown algae near the surface so it can photosynthesize. The long blades stream behind the bulb, rippling in the current. On sunny days, swimming through a kelp forest can feel like you are under a ceiling of golden stained-glass which undulates and sparkles with the moving water. These kelp forests provide important habitat for many juvenile marine species on our Pacific Coast and are an essential part of a healthy marine ecosystem. Humpback whales were once rare on the Pacific coast due to intensive whaling practiced during the early 1900’s. By 1960 the last commercial whaling station on the BC coast had shut down and with the international moratorium on commercial whaling signed in 1982, humpback populations have been making a slow recovery and are now returning in great numbers to the West Coast of Canada. It is now common to see these amazing cetaceans up and down our coast, blowing great breaths into the air and feasting on the rich marine life in the area. It is magical indeed to watch these mammoth marine mammals silhouetted in the sunset as they cruise along.

Along the bottom are plumose and green surf anemones, ochre and vermillion sea stars, sea urchins, a sea peach (type of tunicate) brightly coloured proliferating and brooding anemones and tiny orange social tunicates grow along the kelp stalks.

Thank you for supporting the creation of art from waste, 10% of the purchase price of this piece of art will be donated in your name to the Ucluelet Aquarium’s Marine Debris Initiative.

$450