World Oceans Day today (8 June) has a special significance for me, given my dedication to cleaning up litter in Camps Bay, and in organising a monthly Camps Bay Community Clean up. My goal is to prevent as much of the litter on the pavements, lawns, and walkways at the Camps Bay Beachfront from flying into the Atlantic Ocean.

Artist and sculptor Francois Knoetze’s   ‘This is Plastiglomerate’ is a well-timed artwork which has recently been erected on Camps Bay Beach to draw attention to the danger of plastics to our environment, World Environment Day having been celebrated last week.

The Labia Cinema celebrates World Oceans Day with a screening of ‘My Octopus Teacher’ today.

World Oceans Day is celebrated in South Africa too, and forms part of June being Environment Month.

Wikipedia describes World Oceans Day as follows: ‘World Oceans Day is an international day that takes place annually on 8 June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “World Oceans Day” was officially recognised by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fosters public interest in the protection of the ocean and the sustainable management of its resources.’

The theme for World Oceans Day 2021 is ‘The Ocean: Life & Livelihoods’. The aim of this year’s campaign is to ‘shed light on the wonder of the ocean and how it is our lifesource, supporting humanity and every other organism on Earth’. 

 

Whilst doing a Camps Bay beach clean on Sunday, we discovered a new artwork on Camps Bay Beach, entitled ‘This is Plastiglomerate’ by Francois Knoetze. A board at the artwork introduces it as ‘A Fossil held together by Plastic’. It goes on to describe the artwork as follows: ‘This is not just an art piece. It’s real. Scientists have recently discovered the first-ever fossil created not with rock, bone or wood, but held together by the impact of mankind’s consumption; plastic. Faithful to Nature, together with local artist Francois Knoetze, have brought this Plastiglomerate to life – and to the forefront of your mind. We all need to stop… think about the way we shop, use, and discard our plastic’.  (See main photograph)

To celebrate World Oceans Day ‘My Octopus Teacher’, the 2021 Oscar-winning Documentary made in Cape Town about the kelp forest off Simon’s Town, and the love affair between an Octopus and film maker Craig Foster, will be shown at The Labia Cinema at no charge at 17h15 today. 

https://www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog/cape-town/best-documentary-feature-2021-and-the-oscar-goes-to-my-octopus-teacher-from-cape-town/

To assist in keeping the oceans clean, please pick up litter when you go for a walk along the beach, and join us for our Camps Bay Community Beach Cleans on the last weekend of the month, sponsored by The 41 Restaurant.  For more details about the Community Beach Cleans contact me on the cellphone number below.  

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whaletalesblog.com www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide