Viano do Castelo in Northern Portugal is a beautiful port city with an attractive historical centre and inviting beaches. But like all coastal places it struggles with the growing amounts of garbage, plastic and otherwise, which spoil the environment on land and in the sea.

Mundus maris friend Prof. Sarah K. Meltzoff - see the review of her book on maritime anthropology - shared pictures of a remarkable public exhibition to alert citizens to the threats of garbage and marine pollution and promote greater respect for the ocean.

Sea spider and cod	Octopus and grouper

 So much creativity - thumbs up for the artists turning garbage scraps into beautiful creatures of the ocean.

It's clearly better to avoid the one-way plastic bottles altogether, which take centuries to disintegrate in the sea and, once ground up into microplastic, return to our plates. Besides, if used, such PET bottles are among the easiest plastic materials to be recycled.

The municipality calls all citizens and their visitors to help avoid pollution to keep the environment healthy for all. This riverside exhibition was on through July 2023. More info on Viano do Castelo in different European languages is available here.

Mundus maris thanks Sarah K. Meltzoff for the opportunity to make these pictures available more widely.