A new 36-foot sculpture at the Canary Wharf in London, “Whale on the Wharf (Skyscraper), by Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang of StudioKCA in New York, is causing quite an online stir in Japan, Kyodo News reports.

The sculpture, made of “ocean plastic waste,” was designed to be a “reminder of the millions of tons of plastic waste swimming in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.” 

However, social media posters started recognizing what was likely 2011 tsunami debris in the sculpture. The tsunami (which was very similar to what would happen when the Cascadia Subduction Zone slips) devastated several areas, and killed thousands, in coastal Japan.  

Accordingly, social media posters were offended and dismayed by calling the tsunami debris used to create the plastic whale “waste,” and said so. The whale had suddenly become more of a social issue than a social reminder.

The Canary Wharf Group, exhibitors of the whale, says all of the plastic used to create the sculpture was collected from beaches in Hawaii, but nonetheless took to TikTok, saying they were “not aware of the original provenance of some of the plastic used in the sculpture, and we apologise for any upset caused.” 

The artists also responded: “You can find everything in the ocean, it connects all of us together on this planet — in good and in tragic ways … another reason to be aware of what we use, and how we use it, and work together to protect our planet.”

As an afterthought: StudioKCA has two other whales on display: One, made of 5 tons of Pacific Ocean plastic debris, in Bruges, Belgium; and a second, made of 15 tons of plastic waste, in Taiwan. One has to wonder if anyone has, or will, look as closely at the plastic used in those two installations. (Photo: Canary Wharf Group)