RARE ACT OF ECO-ACTIVISM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/dolphin-in-gowanus-canal-examined-cause-of-death-polluted-waters_n_2566061.html








In a rare act of eco-activism, a dolphin committed suicide in the Super-Fund wastes of the Gowanus Canal. The determined animal made its way almost to the end of the infamous inlet, finally coming to its final resting place between Union and Sackett Streets in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, New York.

This is the first documented case of eco-activism perpetrated by a dolphin protesting the deplorable conditions in the long polluted industrial waste site since it was assigned Super Fund status by the United States Environmental Protection Agency back in 2010.

On-lookers stood by helplessly as the doomed animal breathed its last breaths. However, before its life was completely spent, in a heroic gesture benefitting all humanity, the dolphin scrapped at the sedimentary muck of the canal with its nose and displayed it to the crowd in an effort to draw attention toward what a sad state lies at the bottom of this legendary waterway.

Rescuers were hoping against hope the animal would change its mind and abandon its plan, but those hopes were crushed with the setting of the sun. An necropsy is being performed to determine the exact cause of death.

Last fall this poet wrote a brief verse about the Gowanus:


It sits still
and nicely there
object of my fixation

Industrial backwater
green as anti-freeze
surface tension like mud
slicks of petroleum
rainbow reflecting
cold winter sun

Gowanus

Gowanus

Gowanus

Highway miles above you
so to bumper to bumper drivers
you appear as an
Asp slithering
from Liberty Bay.



Photo credits:

Statute of Liberty by MDRansom

AP photo from Huffington Post of dolphin in canal. For more go to:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/dolphin-in-gowanus-canal-examined-cause-of-death-polluted-waters_n_2566061.html