Despite the challenging weather, “Samudra” the Sea Serpent was installed early on the morning of July 22nd 2023 and the launch went ahead at 10am as scheduled.
There was a good crowd of onlookers, braving the wind and rain! Exmouth Youth Theatre sang and Zoey Cooper, Exmouth Town Council’s Climate Officer, explained the background to the project. She thanked Little Lost Robot for their brilliant design and construction – and also the Exmouth primary schools who were part of the co-design (Brixington, Withycombe Raleigh, Exeter Road and the Deaf Academy).
Simon Findel-Hawkins from Sideshore explained how Sideshore was the perfect location for the installation and how Samudra chimed with their sustainability values and objectives. Exmouth‘s Mayor formally named the sea serpent (“Samudra” is Indonesian for ocean) and, with some young helpers, demonstrated how to feed the monster with plastic bottles. Lotte, from Happy Bubbles, made sure we had a steady supply of bubbles floating past the magical sea creature at all times.
There are three entry points for plastic bottles on the recycling sculpture and the messaging is clear – please recycle your plastic bottles here! Ideally, there will be more sea creatures along the sea front, and they may ‘eat’ different types of waste. However, Exmouth Town Council urges people to remember their reusable drinking bottles and cups and consider refilling before recycling.
Samudra the sea serpent is a joint initiative from Exmouth Town Council and Sideshore. They will monitor the plastic waste and invite feedback.
