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Collaboration: OCEANS, OCTOPUS & US

woman in white and brown dress standing on green grass during night time

Commissioned by the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition (COLC) for the Ocean Festival held in celebration of the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress hosted this year in Canada on February 2-9, 2023. Here is "Ollie" in all her glory at the front of the Jack Poole Plaza outside the Convention Centre in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.

Our task was to engage the public in chats about ocean health -- not a hard thing to do when you have a 50' Giant Pacific Octopus on your team!

Here is Lee-Anne, forming chicken wire into long, tapered tentacles. We used grid wire for the body.

Plumbing pipes and irrigation tubing proved to be the perfect material for the armature. Rigidity, flexibility, strength and light weight, accessible.

Spray painting to give her form.

We stuffed orange tarp and white recycled Tyvek to give the tentacles colour.

As much as possible was put together in my studio. Then, we rolled Ollie's body parts up and drove to Vancouver.

Plastic paint lids make excellent octopus eyes - which are the most curious things!

Gary Walker was the builder. He knows his materials and wandered the hardware stores in search of ideas.

As much as possible was put together in my studio. Then, we rolled Ollie's body parts up and drove to Vancouver.

Hundreds of visitors responded to the question, "What do you want to say to Ollie, the Giant Pacific Octopus?"

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​A SELECTION OF THOUGHTS WRITTEN ON THE TYVEK STRIPS FROM THE PEOPLE WHO CAME:

- An equitable and conserved future and a chance for the ocean to rest and recover
- stop overfishing and "sustainable" marketing
- Dear Ocean, may you be clean and free from plastic
- Concerned about deep sea mining. Stricter, more long-sighted regs!
- Octopus and Ocean, I hope you have a long long life. I am thankful and I pray for the next generation
- How can I apologize for all of humanity...
- Ocean, you have held my tears and my heart and so I give you my love and gratitude and promise to treat you with greater care
- I am sorry for our greed and mistakes
- My wish is that people would stop profit at the expense of the ocean's health and future. It will cost us dearly
- I wish leaders would set aside political agendas that are not good for the world. I wish they would compromise and work in unison for the health of our world
- Enforce fishing laws
- We must listen to our native elders and learn from their deep wisdom
- Fund baseline research on oceans where gaps exist. Invest in this!
- My prayer is for my grandsons to see healthy ocean ecosystems, for the earth to be restored
- Surcharge companies for using single-use plastic
- I wish for stricter and anti-longlining and trolling regulations
- My wish is for the blue economy to achieve net 0 GHG emissions
- Ban ocean fish farms
- I wish more people thought of the ocean as a home instead of a garbage dump
- My wish for the ocean, oh Octopus, is that humans amend for our behaviour so that the ocean and octopus survive for centuries
- Ocean fish farms must be moved out of the water for the sake of our native salmon
- Less plastic, more plankton
- My wish: the oceans recover from adverse human impact as a result of remedial action led by indigenous wisdom in science in harmony
- I'll do my best to tackle the marine debris problem
- I wish for the ocean to continue to be a mother to boundless life
- I want to thank you for everything that you have given to us. Thank you for your gifts

"What do you want to say to Ollie, the GIant Pacific Octopus?"

Ollie's tentacles are covered in words. May the conversations continue.

CONVERSATION

So what happened to Ollie after the conference? She was carefully dismantled by an enthusiastic team of COLC volunteers and donated to the University of British Columbia's new Climate Hub. There, the wire, tarp, pipes and tubing have been put to good use in their campus garden. As for the Tyvek strips on which people wrote their thoughts? These were all removed and recycled in Ottawa. The conversations and lobbying, education and good work continue around the globe.

​Note: IMPAC6 will be held in Senegal.

Where is Ollie Now?