A new eco adventure children’s book created to inspire readers to take action and help reduce plastic waste in our oceans.
Several years ago, Naomi was watching Blue Planet 2 with their youngest son as he loved the sea creatures. But when the episode about plastic in the ocean came on, he couldn’t tell the difference between the plastic and the fish. Of course neither can the creatures that live in our seas, which is why they get tangled up in it, eat it and sadly die because of it.
Naomi decided to write a story about a little fish who finds what she thinks is an odd, lonely sea creature but what readers will recognise is a plastic bottle. Little Fish becomes determined to reunite this Odd Fish with its family and along the way meets a seahorse, octopus and turtle who have all encountered some plastic too.
The statistics around plastic in the ocean are terrifying; One rubbish trucks worth of plastic is dumped in the ocean every minute of every day. By 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish and a new preliminary research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam shows that Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood.
Since moving to Cornwall, Naomi and James are more aware than ever of the impact of plastic pollution in our seas – every single time they go to the beach they find plastic washed up on the shore, from recognisable items like bottle top lids, facemasks and food wrappers to unrecognisable tiny pieces of plastic called nurdles.
James and Naomi created The Odd Fish to entertain children with an engaging adventure story, fun characters and beautiful illustrations but they also really hope it provokes discussion between children their parents and teachers.
They would love for The Odd Fish to inspire readers to take action to help reduce plastic waste in our oceans and have also included some information at the end of the book about how children can make a difference, from picking up litter, to asking their grown-ups to use less single use plastic and asking their schools to take part in the Surfers Against Sewages’ Plastic Free Schools and Nurseries programme.
Buy The Odd Fish
Watch The Odd Fish being read
You can sign your school or nursery up to be a Plastic Free School and Nursery
Follow Naomi & James: Instagram @naomiandjamesjones Twitter: @NaomiJones_1 and @JamesPaulJones
