Pearl Of The Carribean 2022

 

Pearl Of The Carribean
Object_ mixed media

The great winged clam (Lobatus gigas) is a marine gastropod mollusk in the family of the winged crabs. It is one of the largest molluscs: it weighs around 2 kilograms and its shell can reach a size of over 30 centimetres.

This particular shell is about 20-30 years old and was found on the island of Saint Helena in the Caribbean. These so-called ‚queen conchs‘ are hunted for meat on Caribbean islands and sold to restaurants for foreign tourists. During the first half of its life, this mussel encountered a plastic bag in the sea and swallowed it while filtering the plankton on which it feeds. Over the years, the plastic has become an integral part of her shell as she has been winding it into the spirals of her shell for many years. Instead of the pearls that these shells rarely produce, here we see the Anthropocene producing quite different ‚jewels‘.

Thanks_ Pavel Matěj, Ondřej Filípek