The Tale of Eco the Dolphin

This story is part of an 11 part collaboration started by a creator on Vocal known as Courtney Capone. She wanted to make this short fiction series to draw attention to the plastic pollution problem in the ocean. I'll be the first to admit I wasn't very educated on it myself but the further I read the more horrified I became by it all. With that in mind I wrote a tale of something truly horrible. The story may be fiction but the inspiration behind it is unfortunately quite real. However first since I am the 9th person to be in the collaboration I will be posting the previous eight authors before me so you can enjoy their reads as well.

Zel Harrison- The Mermaid Who Met a Patch of Blue

Paula Shablo- A Whale of a Tale

Judey Kalchik- Mermaid Birthday Party

Sofia Duarte- Do Not Blow Up Our Planet Like A Balloon

Courtney Capone- The Struggling Sea Turtle

Siobhan Flynn- The Seal That Was Broken

Cmh Hen- Wai Ka Honua

Tiandra Callaway Moore- Sharks Come In Different Varieties

My name is Eco. At least that's the name the humans gave me. My name in dolphin would be much too hard to pronounce so just call me Eco. I'm a bottlenose dolphin that lives in the Atlantic ocean. I'm 33 years old and have lived in this ocean all my life. Within the last twenty years though I've found something very upsetting in the ocean. Things that look like food but aren't. I'm talking about plastics.

Humans have been dumping plastics in the ocean by the millions of tons every year now for quite some time. Sometimes fishermen dump their broken nets overboard, people throw away their bags into the water, and people will drop weird circular things filled with air into the ocean. Most of the time I can tell which is which but the bags are the trickiest. Just the other day I munched on one thinking it was a squid. I spit it back out because of how nasty it tasted but I had already swallowed some. Though after that I got full a lot faster so that was good.

I got caught in a net today farther down than I had ever seen one before. It wrapped itself around my tail and started trying to drag me down too. I really thought that was going to be the end of me but then a shark tried to attack me. Normally that would be bad but somehow he managed to tear the netting off of me and only leave a little scrape. I swam off really fast after that so he wouldn't try to take another bite of me. Though he didn't chase me so I hope the net didn't get him too.

Eating fish is so much easier these days. Normally I have to eat ten small fish or a couple of squids but lately I've only needed to eat maybe half that and I feel full. It's made hunting much easier though I've noticed that I've been feeling weaker too. I can't swim as fast and there's something poking me from the inside. I wonder if it was something I ate? Do the fish eat the plastic too? If they are then when I eat then I'm just eating more plastic. I try to be so careful to avoid the plastic but there's just so much of it I don't know if I have been.

There are less dolphins in my pod these days. I was told they all just started getting sick and dying. Maybe they ate the plastic too. I really hope not. I don't want to get sick but I need to eat too. I want to go to one of my favorite spots later. It's a little island that no humans seem to know about but when I tried to go there I found even more plastic. It's covered in trash now as well as all the water around it. Trying to swim over there now just leaves me exhausted and with little cuts all over my body. The plastic cuts at me if it gets too close to me.

I found the good humans again today. I swam up to see them but they all looked very sad when they saw me. They fed me some fresh fish that they promised had nothing bad in them and petted my nose telling me to watch out for the plastic. I wish I could tell them how bad it is these days. Most of my pod is gone now. I only have to eat two fish these days though so it makes hunting very easy. But I'm so slow and sluggish I'm sure something will eat me soon.

It's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between food and plastic. They all just kind of blend together in the water floating so tantalizingly in the currents. My fins keep bumping into bottles, nets, and bags. I keep thinking that something is trying to eat me. The other dolphins don't swim with me anymore. They tell me that I look too sick to be around them. I keep swimming around hoping I'll find something that isn't plastic to eat. All I need now is one more fish.

I found the good humans again. They seemed to be looking for me. There's a man with a white coat that looks me over several times. I can feel his fingers poking and prodding my cuts. He checks my mouth and pokes at my tongue. When he's done he looks to the other humans and shakes his head. They all look very sad. They use a machine and pull me into the boat with them. There they all surround me and make me feel like I'm part of a pod again. Suddenly I feel something sharp poke me and I become sleepy. But it's okay because I'm going to sleep with my pod.

I will provide reference points for what I talk about in this piece. Unfortunately plastic is filling our oceans at such a rate that many animals are dying off in high numbers. It's currently believed that there is at least 15 trillion tons of plastic in the ocean. Many animals including dolphins accidently eat these plastics and it fills their stomachs causing a false sensation of becoming full thus leading to starvation. Since the fish they eat are also eating plastic they can't even eat fish without fear of eating more plastic. There are people out there trying to help but much more will need to be done to make a true impact.

How does pollution affect dolphins

Various dangers to both whales and dolphins

Our last two pieces of this collaboration will be presented by Jim who will be talking about fish and Courtney who will be doing a final piece to wrap everything together. Thank you all for reading.