I remember what it was like before.

My first taste of life. The warm face of my mother staring down at me. Feeling the cool water against my sleek body, the joy as I followed my pod through the depths of the ocean. There we stayed, fish were plentiful, schools of plankton set out for us like a feast.

Tranquillity.

My mother would tell me stories of them. The ones who walked on land without gills, bathed in the sunshine without the need of our waters against their skin. She said,

"I've seen them many times. They are much like us you know. They live a happy, peaceful life, with their strange looking havens and colourful sands. Do not be afraid Haf. This is our territory, and that is theirs."

I, my innocent self, of course believed her. When could my wise guardian ever be wrong?

Years went on. The sunlight stayed bright, the nights stayed beautiful, the water stayed my home.

At 8, I reluctantly left the waters I knew, swimming further and further away until my pod was but a tiny speck in the distance. I thought it was the hardest thing I would ever have to do, leaving their heaven to create my own.

2 months later, I found her. The dolphin of my dreams.

We met on a warm summers day in the gorgeous waters of Australia, sunlight raining down on us like a blessing. Paradise. My everlasting paradise. I imagined so many things that day. Calves of our own created to follow their own destinies, a pod behind us swimming gracefully as we led the crowd. How proud would my mother be?

To this day I scorn my idealistic attitude. No world is perfect.

I remember the night it happened. She was carrying our calf, I guarded from behind from the darkest threats of the ocean, huge sharks with fierce teeth and large tails lashing behind them. We were foolish.

Although I had tried to ignore it, our oceans were being destroyed, bit by bit, horrible plastic traps and contraptions building up and surrounding us like sharks cornering us to one part of the sea. It got darker, the starry lights in the ocean vanishing above the cruel cloud of smoke. She began to cry out, whistling and clicking for my attention, but I couldn't find her, she was gone from my sight. By the time the unnatural cloud had moved over, I saw it.

The plastic trap around her neck.

Her lifeless body, sinking to the ground, calf dead inside of her.

They were gone.

#PlanetorPlastic