sustainability project : Magazine 4

#4 ....................... A Publication Of SchoolNet Global

Please take the time to click on the thumbnails of the children's art work. This will open a new window with their original published page within SchoolNet Global. Each of these pages has the full-sized art work along with the text published by each child.

My Dying Blue Home - by Mark B (11)

I was a long way from home, on a dangerous voyage, when my friend and I were chased by humans who were throwing spears at us turtles. My best friend was killed but I was lucky and got away. A spear hit me in one of my flippers I was loosing loads of blood. I went to the beach and I dug a deep hole and I layed my eggs in the sand. I went home to my best coral reef but when I got there, it was covered in human waste so I could not see my lovely coral.

I swam for a little while but I swam into a white bag, I was choking as my head went down and my eyes went into darkness.

A Sad Turtle Writes To Humans - Samantha M (11)

Dear Humans,

Hello, I am a turtle. I am writing to you about how you are polluting my beautiful beach. First I want to talk to you about putting rubbish in the sea. When I walk to the sea, rubbish blows in my face and it hurts my eyes. When I walk all bits of waste blows in my face. Cans and rubbish gets stuck in coral and in the sand and it hurts my feet.
You humans put oil into the water that makes the water go a different colour so when I have my eyes open it makes my eyes sting really badly. You put large nets in the sea to catch me, but they miss me and get the fish instead. I wonder what happens to all of those fish you have caught.

I lay my eggs in the sand and humans come and dig them up that is very unfair on us turtles. We cannot breed with other turtles because humans dig up the beach with the baby turtles.

From a very sad,

Mr and Mrs Turtle

A Blue Whale's Thoughts - by Hollie B (11)

I am a Blue Whale and have written this letter to beg you to stop polluting and destroying our world. Our oceans have been peaceful for many years and we loved to swim in the colourful,shimmering water but now you've ruined it all for us. You've polluted it with your rubbish and oil. Our coral is limp and grey, broken because you pollute it. It's our sea and you are wrecking it because you're lazy and careless. You can't be bothered to get rid of the rubbish yourselves so you throw your waste where we live! In our sea! Because you over-fish, our race is dying, many starving because you fill our sea. You fill our sea with oil and fly-ash which when entering our domain it turns rock solid like concrete and squashes our food. Or you over-fish leaving us with nothing to eat. We are starving because of you because you don't care about us anymore,just about yourselves.

Because of you I was orphaned when I was a young calf because you leave nets everywhere and my mum swam into one got entangled in the net and suffocated to death that is the way my mum died because you leave your big nets around that trap and kill us. Why? Why do you torment us? Because of you my sister had to rear me, look after me. She was 3, only 3 and she had to look after me. She was only a baby but she had to act like an adult she grew up to quickly because of that, she missed out on her childhood trying to look after me. When I swim I see animals covered in it, seals, otters, birds, fish, other whales, dolphins, sharks,and many,many other animals.

Some kind people help but most take one look and go 'Oh well' and carry on with life. The oil is killing us can't you see that? Are you totally blind? Is it that hard for you to get up and help? Well is it? Think about it. Think hard about it and take a big look at yourself. My sister was caught in an oil spill and the oil wrapped itself around her like a tight coat and covered her eyes like two dark sunglasses. Later she got beached and a kind human helped clean her up and get her back in the sea. I nursed her back to health as it was the only thing I could do to repay her. When I was young I was hunted, one boat tried to herd me towards another but when they thought they had me, I got away because I am small and quick, so they lost me.

After that I created a fear of Humans and only just managed to pluck up the courage to write this. Please stop doing this! Our sea is bad, our fish are poisoned it is not just us who eat fish but birds too. If you are not careful you will loose all your beautiful birds and marine life. You are like the oil you wrap yourselves around us until we die. We used to be so happy our songs full of joy but those songs are lost to us now, forgotten, dead, unknown, totally demolished!!! The sea is full of sad frightened songs now. We are dying, wilting and near extinction. I and a few others are what is left of our species.

Please stop this MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!

Yours Pleadingly,

Blue Whale

It's Horrible - by Chelsea B (11)

Hello, I am Dilly.

Firstly, I am writing to you humans because you are hurting my family and my friends. Do you know what you are doing? Well you are throwing nasty oil into the sea, and you throw powder in and it turns to concrete and when it does, it covers up my friends and families food.

Secondly, I eat fish and if the fly-ash covers up the food, we can't eat the fish and we die and I starve. It's the same with the whales because they eat fish too.

Thirdly,the hunters are hunting my family and I don't like it! The other day, I got my nose stuck in a beer can and now I have a big cut on my nose,it is not nice to look at, and it hurts very much. Having rubbish in the sea, makes the sea mean and nasty, so would you be kind enough to stop it PLEASE!.

Thank you for listening to me.

From.DILLY

P.S. Another reason you should stop this is because you could be hurting your own children if they want to swim in the sea, they could catch diseases because of the oil and rubbish. It has been known to happen. So please, please, please, STOP IT. It hurts my heart to know that you don't care for us.

Thanks DILLY xxxxxxxxx

Letter from a Turtle to Humans by Taja M age 11

Dear Humans,

Hello I am a turtle and I want to complain about how much rubbish you leave on the beaches and in the sea. People just come down to the beach and after having something to eat just throw their rubbish on the beach. Some children even think it's funny to throw rubbish in the sea.

Pollution is a very big problem in the sea, because of a pollution called fly-ash. When fly-ash hits the sea bed, it turns to rock. A lot of fish die because they have no food, this is because the fly-ash has covered it up.
Many fish also get pulled out of the sea by massive nets. There might not be enough food left for the bigger sea mammals and the smaller creatures to eat.
There might also be big chunks of glass in the sand, so when little animals walk to the ocean they might cut themselves.

There are many problems with the sea nowadays, some turtles are luckier than others, but others are less fortunate than me. Please, please, please stop dumping oil and rubbish and look after our beach.

Love from

Mr and Miss Turtle

A Letter From A Dolphin By Megan H age 11

People of the Upper World,

I am a Dolphin I live in the Pacific Ocean with my friends and family. Everyday of our lives we swim through the waves looking at all the beautiful things that sit on the sea bed.
You have turned it into a dump and a horrible place to live in. You are all cruel and mean. We don't hunt you down in big ships and pull you up in nets, I have to watch this happen everyday. The waste that gets put into the sea everyday kills us and a lot of shellfish that lie on the bottom of the ocean. The other day I was swimming away from you and I cut myself on the sharp side of a tin on my tail it hurt a lot. My mum and dad are dead from being hunted down by you, why do you kill us? Would you like it if I came and threw all of our rubbish in your home like you do in ours.

I would also like you to know what you have done by throwing oil into the sea you killed my sister and a lot of my friends just by oil. Fly ash is another problem you pour all the powder into the sea it floats to the bottom and covers all of the beautiful plants and creatures of the sea.
There is also a big problem with fishing because you have got such big nets it catches hundreds of fish and leaves just a few for us. That is the main reason why we are vanishing so quickly, because there is nothing left to eat at all.

I am lucky to still be alive down here below you, I am writing this to tell you what we all feel and how bad it looks down here.Therefore you do all of this but you don't see any of it.In the future to come I sincerly hope you stop this from happening or there will be none of us creatures left. Stop driving us to extinction, because you are the ones who can make the world a better place.

Yours beseechingly

Dolphin.