Here is a poem that I wrote for an upcoming poetry competition focused on ocean pollution:

THE NETS WE FORGET

The dark gray sky casts its shadow on the sea,

The sea swells with the wind, whipping up froth.

Thunder booms among the rolling clouds;

Lightning flashes in the distance,

But underneath, it is calm.

The muffled sound of the storm above dances off the coral.

Small reef fish swarm in and out of nooks and crannies.

All seems fine at first, but there is something wrong here.

A ghost enters the scene.

A nearly invisible drifter.

A gillnet.

But this fishing net does not belong to anybody.

It has been abandoned,

But its job is not done.

This ghost still has lives to take.

First comes a shrimp,

A puny pink prawn:

Gone.

His life ends and is doomed to drift away,

Trapped forever.

Next is a fish.

A huge one at that.

He swims right into the net,

And in the blink of an eye,

The life leaves his body.

A little porpoise swims through the shallows,

Bubbles dancing down her side.

She’s teaching her baby how to fish.

They happen upon a juicy meal,

But as the mother darts towards the target,

She is struck by a web of death.

The fish they were chasing

Was already a victim.

The baby, terrified, watches as her mother writhes in agony.

And the ghost has taken yet another life.

Here is a double exposure image, made from a Vaquita photograph and an ocean sunset photograph that I combined using digital software:

And here is a mosaic of a Vaquita made out of hundreds of photographs taken during International Save the Vaquita Days 2014 & 2015:

International Save the Vaquita Day has become a huge event, and one that has been—and will continue to be—making a legitimate difference for the Vaquita and its survival. Showing the people and government of Mexico that the world cares about the Vaquita and appreciates their efforts to date will hopefully inspire them to follow through with their promises and actually save this species. To make ISTVD 2016 the biggest one yet, help ignite the buzz and donate to the event by buying a cool ISTVD 2016 t-shirt!

https://www.booster.com/international-save-the-vaquita-day-2016