Song of the Dolphin Boy began its life in France, when I was staying with some old friends. Thank you, Robin and Merril! Robin’s nephew, Simon Christopher, was staying too. He makes underwater films of marine wildlife in Borneo, and he told me how worried he was about the state of the oceans. Thank you, Simon, for inspiring me.
We humans have used the seas as dumping grounds for all our waste for thousands of years. In the old days much of our rubbish just rotted or eroded harmlessly away, but then plastic was invented.
We all love plastic! We wrap our food in it, we use it to make our bright, colourful toys, our computers and phones, and almost anything else you can imagine. When we’re tired of all our stuff, we just throw it away. You’d be amazed how much plastic rubbish ends up in the sea – around eight million tons a year – and there it stays. Vast islands of plastic that will last for thousands of years float about in the once-clean water. Whales, dolphins, seals and birds get tangled up in them. They think that plastic is food, and when they eat it their stomachs fill up, and they can starve.
I wanted to do something about this. I went to see Professor Paul Thompson, who runs the brilliant Aberdeen University Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty. He told me about the problems caused by balloons when they’re released into the air. They nearly always end up in the sea and can seriously harm dolphins and other wildlife. So thank you, Professor Thompson, for giving me the idea behind Song of the Dolphin Boy. And thank you too to Barbara Cheney, who shared her great knowledge of dolphins with me.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Song of the Dolphin Boy. You might feel inspired to look online to find out more about ocean conservation and the CleanSeas campaign. We humans need to care for our great, blue, beautiful oceans and all the wonderful animals and fish who live in them. We need to get the great clean-up started!