Once upon a time, there was a little fish who lived with his family in Lake Erie and his name was Carter Gills. He was a California Sheepshead with an orange tail and fins, his body was blue, pink, and white with a pink head. Carter had one wish his entire life and that was to live in his home trash and debris free. 

‍

In his lifetime, Carter had seen his family members and friends caught in plastic bags and pop holders. He had seen bottles, carton containers, straws food bags, huge amounts of paper and many other things taking over the space where him and his friends and family had lived. “Who’s up there doing this to my home above us?”, he thought.

‍

One hot summer afternoon, Carter decided to go to the coast to get evidence and see what he could find. When reaching the top, he was so amazed at what he saw. There were these humongous moving objects making a ton of noise, doing crazy things and throwing their trash everywhere, which was getting into the shore. Yep, they were humans. “Why don’t they care? They know that we are down here. Right?” As Carter collected his thoughts, trying to get out of shock as to how cruel and ruthless humans can be, he made his way back to his family and friends to tell them what he learned and saw.

As his mother, Finney, sobbed she exclaimed, “How could they even do this to us? They are killing everyone we know. Bubbles and Guppies just passed away last week from swallowing two bottle caps thinking it was food.” Looking at his mother in pure sadness and anger,Carter thought, “This has to STOP and it needs to stop now!” 

‍

Days had passed, then weeks, then months as Carter still hadn’t found out what to do or how he could get a jump start on making his home in the ocean better for all. “I’m just a tiny sheephead fish, what can I even do? I can’t walk up there and make them stop.”

‍

Devastated and out of solutions, Carter just gave up. About a day or two later, Carter had seen those big humans in his home wearing weird and scary masks. “Oh no, they’ve come to officially harm all of us and end our ecosystem.” Swimming away fast, Carter scurried to tell everyone to hide.

After finding his hiding place, Carter looked back to see what exactly the humans were doing and what he saw really put a huge smile on his face. “They’re cleaning up. They’re actually helping us?!” The thought of one day soon to have a healthy and clean home is something that was really special to him.  This truly resonated, that an effort was being made and put into effect. Trash was being picked up, lives were being made better for those who cared as well as the animals. 

‍

The beach has never looked better thanks to the clean-up crews that have taken the time and initiative to do something bigger than themselves. Carter was overwhelmed with emotion and was greatly appreciative towards those that have taken the time out of their days to do this.

Four years later, life has been extremely improved for Carter and his family. The water had never been more blue and the sand has never been more blemish free than right now in this moment. Carter has children of his own now along with his wife, Sandy. Together they teach their children to never be afraid of humans because even though there are some that won’t and will never care; there are those who want to see them have beautiful, long, and healthy lives. If we all give it time and a chance we can  make a fish like  Carter Gills very  happy. 

‍

Marine  and wildlife lives  matter just as  much as we believe our does. Do what is right.