Unveiling of A fish named Faithful by Faithful to Nature

Last week Wednesday I attended the unveiling of a Fish named Faithful at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. What and who is Faithful you ask? Well, Faithful is a 5 m long by 2.5m high wire and plastic sculpture consigned by online eco-lifestyle and health retailer Faithful to Nature to highlight the impact of plastic waste on marine life as one of the organizations many plastic free July initiatives.

She (she’s a girl to me :)) is a hollow sculpture, designed to be interactive with the public in that they can throw unwanted plastic into her mouth, filling her belly, thereby highlighting how much plastic waste ends up in the bellies of marine life.

Faithful to Nature’s CEO Katrien Grobler addressed us and highlighted some scary statistics. One being, that every year more than 12 million metric tons of plastic lands up in our oceans. Can you even begin to fathom how much that is? She put it into perspective for us like this:

A blue whale weighs 200 tons, it’s tongue is the size of a fully grown elephant (insert large-eyed emoji here). Therefore, 12 million metric tons is the equivalent of 60,000 blue whales, 60,000!!! In just 1 year!!! This is madness and super scary. She noted, that, “Participating in feeding Faithful plastic is a tangible, fun tool to educate and drive awareness around plastic’s negative effect on ocean life, public participation means each person can be instrumental in raising awareness and inspiring others into action.”

Faithful to Nature CEO Karien Grobler and founder, Robyn Smith unveil a fish named faithful. Photograph: www.iammelain.com

Our Workshop, Langa based non-profit NGO, Project Manager, Richard Mandongwe took the lead on creating Faithful – a design by internationally acclaimed, Heath Nash – using upcycled plastic and repurposed materials. Noting that is was a challenge but one that he enjoyed knowing that it was for a good cause. He stated, ” People do not pay attention to plastic’s impact on our environment but I hope that through Faithful we are able to shed some light on where most plastic ends up and how to preserve nature.” And I totally agree with him.

WE HUMANS HAVE TO DO MORE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

Richard Mandongwe, Our Workshop Project Manager and Katrien Grobler, CEO of Faithful to Nature posing with A FISH NAMED FAITHFUL. Photographer: Dwayne Senior for Splash PR / Faithful to Nature.

The Our Workshop team Photographer: Dwayne Senior for Splash PR / Faithful to Nature.

Pay Faithful a visit:

Guys, pop over to the V&A Waterfront to pay Faithful a visit and be sure to take along a snack for her, they’re hoping to fill and empty her belly a few times during the course of the month and you can rest assured that all the plastic removed from Faithful’s belly will be disposed of in the most effective and responsible way possible further driving awareness around the creation and more effective ways of disposing it.

Faithful will be at the V&A Waterfront until the 31st of July 2019, thereafter she will be moved to a new location for the same purpose, to spread awareness.

For more information, about #AFishNamedFaithful and for details about Faithful to Nature’s beach clean-ups in collaboration with The Beach Co-Op, visit Faithfultonature.co.za or find them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

xoxo