Inky Response Paper
The economy is slowing, third world nations have political unrest, and Susie is distraught because she cannot decide what to wear to school tomorrow. These seem to be the problems that society is extremely concerned with today. The thing that is so shocking is the fact that humans are so caught up with material possessions and their egocentric problems that they are blinded from the big picture. If we don’t preserve the physical world that we live in, there will be nothing to enjoy the fruits of our labor on. I had the opportunity to watch a very inspiring video this past week, and I see things a lot differently now.
The story of Inky, the pigmy sperm whale is a very moving tale. The whale beached itself for some unknown reason off the coast of New Jersey. Immediately, everyone around came to the attempted rescue of the suffering creature. The whale was airlifted to the Baltimore Aquarium, where marine biologists began to try to decipher the problem with the ailing whale that they came to call Inky. Inky continued to weaken and not eat, and no one could understand the problem. After many tests, a startling discovery was made that traumatized everyone. It seems that the problem with Inky was that she had eaten a large amount of plastic that had been drifting in the ocean from careless polluters. The biologists were able to remove the plastic contents of the whale’s stomach and begin rehabilitation. Slowly, the animal began to gain its appetite back, and began to
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gain some energy. Soon, Inky was back to her normal self, and the biologists took her back to her normal environment and released her.
One of the most impressive aspects of the video was how amazing it was that everyone had come together and cared so much about the whale that they did everything possible to save the creature, no matter what the cost. They had passion. The sad thing is that a majority of the human population doesn’t even have enough pride in the beautiful earth to not mess it up. Constantly, and more often than not, trash and pollution are being washed up on our beautiful shores. If everyone wants to be selfish, they should at least preserve the oceans so that they can enjoy them visually, but they couldn’t care less even about that aspect of it. People don’t even begin to think of the consequences that may arise from throwing a simple bottle cap overboard. Any number of small sea animals may attempt to consume the item, and have serious health complications including death. Not only would the fish most likely die from eating it, but also their predators would end up consuming it as well when they ate the original fish that consumed the item. Any way you look at it, any form of pollution is tragic and just plain selfish.
The first step in correcting the problem is awareness. I admit that I wasn’t completely aware that the problem was so intense until recently. I believe that if everyone could see the consequences for their actions, they might think twice about the next time they go to dispose of unwanted goods. The world is getting smaller, and we all need to learn to respect one another, man and animal alike.