Aquarium Creates Snow Globes With Microplastics To Highlight Ocean Pollution

Video screenshot via Yokohama Hakkeijima

The idea of a Winter Wonderland seems too good to be true during these times. In truth, the world’s oceans are snowing microplastics, and their biodiversity isn’t having a holiday.

To illustrate the plastic pollution problem, the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise—an aquarium theme park in Yokohama, Japan—is showcasing dystopian snow globes at the Imagine the Future Ocean with Art exhibition in Tokyo. Snowflakes, however, aren’t realistic, so it’s instead peppering the globes with microplastic flakes.

The five globes are apt representations of water bodies, and each features a marine animal affected by the sometimes invisible plastic debris. These include clownfish, jellyfish, whales, sea turtles, and penguins.

Image via Yokohama Hakkeijima / PR Newswire

Clownfish, for instance, are losing their anemone habitats, which have unfortunately been bleached by microplastics. As such, the population is dying out.

The project aims to shed light on the millions of tons of plastic waste dumped into the ocean each year. It’s just packaging to us, but it’s destroying homes.

The aquarium says the globes will be disposed of responsibly at the end of the show, which will run through July 18.

Image via ITOCHU / PR TIMES

Image via ITOCHU / PR TIMES

[via Yokohama Hakkeijima / PR Newswire, images via various sources]