Captain Paul Cuffe Park Will Be Home to New Unique Marine Debris Sculpture

Artist Elaine Alder created a unique whale sculpture that will be unveiled later this month.

January 4, 2024; Maui, Hawaii, USA; A whale breaches during the first round of The Sentry golf tournament at Kapalua Golf - The Plantation Course. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The New Bedford Whaling Museum campus is going to have a new exhibit for visitors to marvel at later in the month. On September 22, 2024 at 10:00 AM at Captain Paul Cuffe Park, a unique whale sculpture will be unveiled.

Artist Elaine Alder created a sculpture titled ‘The Water We’re Swimming In’ created entirely out of debris that was picked up off the coast of Massachussetts.

“The exhibit is a partnership between New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the New Bedford Whaling Museum to bring attention to marine debris issues in New Bedford,” as shared by the press release from National Park Services.

In 2020, the NOAA Marine Debris Program started a partnership with the National Park Services. Their goal was to bring awareness to the marine debris issue, the impacts that it can have and how the issue can be prevented.

In their five years of working together, exhibits, just like the one Alder created, have been made to help educate people in another way.

"We are grateful to partners NOAA and the New Bedford Whaling Museum for helping the park highlight the global issue of marine debris on our shores, particularly here in Massachusetts,” said Jennifer Smith, superintendent of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. “As a national park that tells the story of the 19th century whaling industry, adjacent to a 21st commercial fishing port, this sculpture will help our community focus on the impacts of marine debris and the role humans play in protecting ocean ecosystems. Alder’s exquisite sculpture will create awareness about the threat of marine debris and hopefully inspire people to be stewards of conservation.”

Captain Paul Cuffe Park is named in dedication to the Afro-Wampanoag trader, whaler and civil rights advocate. In addition to the marine debris goal that the whale sculpture has, a goal of the New Bedford Whaling Museum is to also bring awareness to the delicate and deep-seated relationship between Indigenous communities and the environment they hold in such high regard.

The artistic piece that Alder proposed was a sculpture of whales breaching and playing in the water. It was a project that Lindsay Compton, the park’s Artist-in-Residence program creator, sought a national artist for and came away thrille by Alder’s idea.

“Elaine’s proposal brought a vibrant and hopeful lens to the challenge of marine pollution. Through their art, we envision a future where healthy North Atlantic right whales symbolize our collective commitment to a cleaner ocean and a more optimistic approach to tackling the preventable issue of marine debris,” said Compton, via the NPS release.