A whale of a reminder: Nantucket sculpture raises awareness of ocean littering dangers

Beth Treffeisen   Cape Cod Times 

Published May 31, 2021 

NANTUCKET — Sitting on the side of the Surfside Beach parking lot, a nearly 40-foot steel-wired whale quickly filled up Friday with the trash that had been found on the nearby beach.

Inside, the trash that included string, Christmas lights, cardboard boxes, and even fishing gear that had previously entangled a seal on the island lined the sculpture’s “stomach,” hypothetically representing what a real whale in the ocean ingests.

During a small ceremony, Graeme Durovich, the town’s recycling and solid waste coordinator, said the aim of setting up the waste management whale named “Moby” is to raise awareness about the coastal litter that lines the beaches of Nantucket and the impact that people have on the surrounding environment.

“Go find some coastal litter and feed Moby!” Durovich announced at the end. 

The whale will help to make the “invisible visible and the intangible, tangible,” she said.

Joining a viral idea 

The project began about two years ago when Scott Leonard, founder and current board member of the Marine Mammal Alliance of Nantucket, showed Bill Sherry a photograph of a large goby fish made of steel on a beach in Bali, Indonesia. The “fish” was filled with plastic bottles that had been collected.

The idea of erecting similar structures on beaches around the world went viral as a unique recycling initiative, Sherry said. 

Leonard suggested that one be constructed on Nantucket and asked Sherry if he would be interested in building it. Even though Sherry is an abstract steel sculptor by trade and had never built anything realistic before, he agreed.

Sherry got some help from four engineering students and the town. 

Since 2008, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute has had students work on more than 60 initiatives through the Nantucket Project Center in collaboration with various local organizations and town committees and departments, according to the center’s website. 

These projects have covered a wide variety of topics, including alternative energy, energy conservation, museum studies, coastal erosion, and affordable housing. 

In fall 2019, the program led by Dominic Golding worked with four students and the island’s Department of Public Works, headed by Robert McNeil and associate Durovich, and artist Sherry to develop the recycling initiative.

A collaborative effort 

The result is the 36-foot steel "sperm whale" that has openings in the side of the head to throw away beach trash. The face is open to allow people to see the empty trash barrels. The middle section houses the bins for recycling and trash, and the fluke of the tail has become the roof of the bus stop at Surfside Beach. 

Named for the whale in Herman Melville's Nantucket-connected book "Moby-Dick," the sculpture took about a year to build, Sherry said. The structure was built in three sections and then was bolted together, he said. 

It really took “a village” to get this project together, he said. That started with the students who designed it and then Sherry executed the plans, said Durovich.

The DPW paid for materials and the overall project was funded in memory of Dave Ozias.

Years ago, Nantucket’s surfing community and the Ozias family lost their son to a sudden undiagnosed medical event. The three owners of The Chicken Box, a rhythm and blues roadhouse on the island, started a foundation and an annual summer surfing contest at Cisco Beach, called The Ozone Classic.

However, the event grew to be so popular it became too big to manage safely. The owners decided they wanted to commemorate Dave Ozias in another way and suggested dedicating the bus stop under Moby’s fluke to him.

After seeing the project created from all that collaboration on Friday, Durovich said, “the result is truly amazing.” 

What happens to island trash

The project is meant to bring attention to the island’s coastal litter issue, she said.

On the island, where do the recycling and trash go?, Durovich asked. If it is non-recyclable and doesn’t compost, it can be moved as far away as landfills in Ohio or Virginia, she said. 

“That’s not responsible or equitable either,” Durovich said. 

The island has a few methods of getting rid of the waste produced, said McNeil. The island composts, and then ships off the recycling, non-compostable trash and a lot of construction debris, he said. 

The waste on the island is produced from visitors, people who live here, and also is blown in from off the island, McNeil said. Balloons, which are banned on the island, are constantly found in the dunes and surf, and on the beaches, he said.

“I really hope that people will think about their contribution to the problems with waste,” said McNeil. 

Each piece of litter that escapes from someone, either intentionally or not, has a way of adding up in the environment, Durovich said. Eventually, it all comes back to the health of the environment, the animals living in it, and the people who live on Nantucket, she said. 

“All of it is connected,” she said. 

Off the island’s coasts, members of the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket disentangle seals on the beach all the time, said alliance treasurer Susan Rohrer, speaking on behalf of the nonprofit organization on Thursday.

Seals are constantly found in netting, fishing line, and plastics, Rohrer said. 

Rohrer hopes that “Moby” will bring awareness to the waste that isn’t properly disposed of and so ends up hurting the wildlife. “We are seeing it, we are seeing it now,” she said.

“I hope (people) start realizing that we as a world are in big trouble with plastics,” said Moby sculptor Sherry before Friday’s ceremony. “That is the message.”