My Plastic-Filled Life

“I… need…. food,” I moaned as I slowly swam. I”d been searching for food and I was close to death. I could feel starvation laughing at my struggle, for it was about to take me. I was about to pass out and give up when I saw a big heap of- “Food!” I said as I swam closer. It was a humongous pile of swirling food, and I needed it all!

I swam up to it and chowed down. I didn’t care how it tasted, I just wanted food. There were things as big as refrigerators in there. I ate and ate and didn’t notice how big the swirling pile was until I stopped eating to take a breath.

It could have been Texas four times in a row! For all I know, there could of been 79,000 tons of food in there and it could have been 600,000 miles squared. But what do I know? I’m just a tiny 5 year old turtle named Elmo. But I could swear that something isn’t right about this place. I felt a hard tug in my stomach.

“Well folks, it appears we have stumbled across the Great Pacific Garbage Patch! If you don’t know, this a swirling mass of garbage and mostly plastic,” said a man in a ferry. Tourists started taking pictures. But that’s when I realized that I was at The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Uh-oh, I thought. I felt another tug in the stomach. More fish were coming. I had to stop them from eating the garbage and plastic.

“Stop!” I said as they arrived. “It isn’t safe to eat here!”

“I think we can eat where we want,” said another turtle I’ve met before named Jeff. He, well, he was a straight up jerk. He always assumes he is superior to everyone around him-uck.

“No…… you…….can’t,” I feel uneasy and light headed. It's getting harder and harder to breathe. I was trying to get even the tiniest bit of life, but I didn’t know how come I couldn't. No I thought, save the others. Even Jeff.

“Don’t………… eat the, the………. Plasti-” I couldn’t talk anymore. All the other sea life, including Jeff, backed up a little. I did it. I saved them from making the mistake of eating the plastic like other sea life mistake to do. I accomplished my goal. Then, everything went dark.