The city of Canggu in Bali is filled with many murals and wall art where tourists find themselves getting lost in all the art pieces. The art piece that stuck out at me was by a New Zealand artist named Kelly Spencer.

Though this mural does not seem like much at your first look, if you take away piece by piece, you can uncover the meaning of it. This mural is located at Echo Beach in Canggu. Local and international artists, including Kelly Spencer, collaborated together to create murals for Tropica Festival 2017, Bali’s street art festival. That year’s focus was to bring awareness to the issue of waste and plastic being thrown in the oceans harming marine life.

Taking up most space on the mural writes: “Plenty More Fish In The Sea?” I feel the artist is asking us, the people who visit these areas and oceans, is there REALLY plenty of fish in the sea with all of these toxins being thrown in the oceans? It is really sad to face the reality that fish and other ocean animals are being harmed because of selfless human acts.

When we move to the right of the painting, we see a fish painted with a “frown.” I interpret this as the fish being aware of what is happening to their environment, but not having the option to do anything about it…because it is up to us humans to take action.

Coming across this mural made me realize that this isn’t just a problem in Bali, but a worldwide problem. So, let’s not forget to throw our trash in the correct bins and not leave it on the floors to flow into the oceans.