News Release

National Park Service and Center for Coastal Studies unveil marine debris shark sculpture at Herring Cove Beach

Date: May 18, 2023
Contact: Aleutia Scott, 508-487-1256
Contact: Laura Ludwig, 207-263-5300

WELLFLEET, Mass— On Thursday, June 8, in celebration of World Ocean Day, Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS) and its park partner, the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), will host a public ceremony to unveil a new marine debris sculpture. The ceremony will take place at 11 am at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown. The ceremony will include remarks from project stakeholders, as well as sentiments from the arts, sciences, and education communities in Provincetown.

Superintendent Brian Carlstrom said, “Marine debris is a serious issue affecting all coastal areas. Debris contains pollutants is harmful towildlife and looks horrible. This sculpture raises awareness and encourages personal behaviors that can reduce marine debris.”

The sculpture is a fourteen-foot Atlantic white shark, made entirely of marine debris collected from the national seashore’s beaches by artist Cindy Pease Roe. The exhibit is designed to raise awareness of marine debris in our ocean and waterways and educate visitors how to make small changes to reduce their impact on the environment.

Laura Ludwig, CCS Marine Debris & Plastics Coordinator said, “I appreciate artists so much because they are storytellers. They can take things that were otherwise trash and turn them into incredible depictions communicating the issue.”

For over a dozen years, CCS has been working with the public and their volunteer group, the Beach Brigade, to clean up beaches and remove marine debris from the seashore. Many items can end up as marine debris, from single-use plastics to fishing gear. The exhibit was developed and installed with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program.

Demi Fox, Northeast Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, said, “The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to partner with the National Park Service. The sculpture represents a unique partnership between federal agencies, artists, and a local nonprofit. We hope that it challenges visitors to pause and reflect on ways they can prevent marine debris from entering this beautiful environment.”

The artist, Cindy Pease Roe, was selected by the CCNS and CCS last August through a competitive process to construct and design a public marine debris exhibit. An educator and marine advocate as well as an artist, Roe founded UpSculpt, a nonprofit charitable organization created to further the education and hands-on solutions surrounding marine debris, plastics, and their disposal. Her marine debris artwork has been featured in galleries and permanent installations around the world, including at the Susan Lister Locke Gallery on Nantucket; for the Overseas Chinese Town Group in Shenzen, China; and last summer at the Sandwich Heritage Gardens & Museum.

Roe is looking forward to the visitor interactions with the piece, saying “You never know who is looking at the sculpture – a person who has a talent for science that wants to work towards the eradication of plastics in our ecosystem, or a person who thinks outside the box that wants to take this message forward into the world. You never know who you could inspire and what they could come up with.”

To learn more about the project, visit: https://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/nature/marine-debris.htm