#Planetorplastic

The sun has set; the stars beacons of light in the night sky, the moon is absent tonight. Keynie dives under the waves and follows his family out to sea. There is a peaceful lull to the ocean; a wonderful and spiritual experience that is hard to put into words. His family communicates with each other constantly, many of them are gifted at carrying a tune. They are a tight knit pod and enjoy showing off their acrobatic abilities. As the night grows darker, they swim to a safe space and sleep, tomorrow will come soon enough and Keynie is anxious to know what adventures he may discover.

It's early and the sun is just beginning to rise, it casts fiery orange reflections on the water. They are happy and alive and ready to eat; belly's full, they begin their journey down the coast. During this time of year, the beaches are open, and many humans enjoy playing and swimming with them. The closer they get to their destination, the more Keynie senses that something is wrong. There are many things floating at the surface, the smell is bad, and they don't understand what is happening. The litter seems to pile up, as the pod gets closer some of it has sunk to the bottom but most of it is still floating on the surface; blotting out the sun. Keynie tries to surface but there is too much debri; he's scared. Realizing the danger here his family turns to leave, he tries to follow them but, he's stuck. There is something caught around his flipper, making it hard for him to swim. Panic starts to set in when he realizes his family is gone, crying out, Keynie emits a high frequency squeak in hopes that his family will hear him and return. How can this happen? Why is this happening? Today was supposed to be like any other day; filled with fun and adventure. He's overcome with sadness and defeat as he starts to slowly drift to the bottom. His thoughts are filled with memories as he slowly comes to the realization that he may slowly die at the bottom of the sea; left to rot.

Not too far off, researchers are conducting studies of tropical fish when they hear the cries from a pod of dolphins. They can sense that something is amiss and decide to investigate. Their concerns are confirmed when they spot an ocean of garbage floating near the shore. Mortified by the conditions, they organize an effort to clean up the mess, enlisting local tourists to help. Amongst the sea of garbage, they are horrified to find sea turtles, birds and a lonely dolphin that has drifted to the bottom, all of them tangled in single-use plastic. 

Keynie is relieved to be alive but, he can see that many of his sea friends were not so lucky and feels sad inside. He doesn't understand why there is floating garbage but he suspects the humans are responsible.