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A concern for the plight of turtles swimming around in oceans filled with plastic helped Matakana School student Barnaby Blampied, 9, win both national and international honours.
Barnaby decided to enter the NZ Cartographic Society’s Children’s Map competition, designed to enhance children’s cartographic awareness and at the same time make them more conscious of their environment.
Barnaby’s entry featured a globe surrounded in plastic, which is being swallowed by a tearful turtle.
The map won first place in the 9-12 age group category and was selected for entry by the cartographic society into the Barbara Petchenick International Children’s Map Competition, held in conjunction with International Cartographic Conference in Tokyo.
In Tokyo, Barnaby’s map was placed second in the same age category, competing against works from children in 40 different countries.
Judge Igor Dreki praised the quality of entries from New Zealand and Barnaby’s map in particular.
“Great idea, excellent map and expert execution,” he said
To create the picture, Barnaby traced the turtle image and re-sized, and printed an image of the world to go with it. He then painted the picture using water colours. He has seen several photographs of dying turtles with plastic wrapped around their faces and mouths, meaning they can no longer eat.
“I like turtles. They have lovely patterns on their back and they are really pretty,” he says.
He says if we keep dumping plastic into the ocean at the present rate by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish and this must stop.
