London whale sculpture may contain 2011 tsunami debris

TOKYO – A giant whale sculpture made of ocean plastic waste, titled Whale On The Wharf (Skyscraper), is being exhibited in London.

However, what was meant to raise awareness on pollution has caused an online stir in Japan, as the display contains what appears to be debris from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

In a post on social media platform X, a user said “I was surprised” after spotting the Japanese characters for Ishinomaki on the object, which was described as being made out of waste.

Ishinomaki was one of the cities in Miyagi prefecture, north-eastern Japan, hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Another user posted an image showing a plastic basket bearing the name of a port in Kuji in Iwate prefecture that was also affected by the disaster.

The plastic used in the sculpture was collected from beaches in Hawaii, according to Canary Wharf Group, a London-based property developer that exhibited the 11m-tall artwork.

Unveiled in a London business district on April 10, the sculpture was designed as a “reminder of the millions of tonnes of plastic waste swimming in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans”.

The firm issued an apology on TikTok to those offended by the display.

But the artists who created the sculpture, Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang of a New York-based architecture and design firm, defended their work on social media, saying that “not all of the 150 million tonnes of plastic is intentionally placed there – or even waste”. KYODO NEWS