The Sea Doctor

by Eliya Qianyi Wang

In the Underwater Sea Animal Hospital, doctors and nurses were working swiftly to take care of their patients. Dr. Tootle had become busier and busier these days because animals just kept showing up.

“Let the next one in,” he ordered.

Nurse Jellyfish opened the door, and a frantic-looking seal came in. His body was oddly like a strange gourd! He was tightly bound by a thick plastic string in the middle of his body and had big patches of swollen skin around the string. He had to keep squirming around, trying to break free. But all failed. “I happened to fall in the plastic mesh. I was bound for a really long time. I just can’t get through!” the seal wailed.

With many years of experience, Dr. Tootle understood so well that even he helped as much as he could to remove the string. But, the seal’s body will never be able to recover to its normal shape fully. He would be disabled for the rest of his life.

The next patient, Mr. Seahorse, who had a big swollen face, came racing in. His right nose had pus and was bleeding with a long plastic tube deeply stuck into that nose hole. Dr. Tootle informed Mr. Seahorse, regrettably, that he should always wear a mask for the rest of his life even after removing the plastic tube went smoothly because his face will be deformed seriously.

A dolphin mother carrying a baby dolphin hurriedly shoved its way in, shaking and sobbing. The baby just died. The inconsolable mother kept pleading with Dr. Tootle to revive her baby’s life.

After he examined the baby's corpse, Dr. Tootle was shocked as there was so much garbage in her little stomach! Water bottle scraps, plastic bags that were just starting to digest, even a metal can

Out the door, there were still many patients waiting anxiously in a long line.

Dr. Tootle frowned and gasped. A scene had just come into his mind: Big ships were coming and humans were dumping tons of waste into the ocean!

Sea animals were surrounded by plastic bags, plastic tubes, plastic bottles, and other waste. They were suffering every day, even dying at a young age because of all the garbage from human beings. Didn’t they care about them?

He decided to do something beyond only examining animals’ bodies. He couldn’t wait.

A month later, a letter was sent to human beings on behalf of all sea animals.

In the letter, sea animals asked furiously:

“When can you stop using plastic bags and tubes?”

“When can you stop dumping waste into the ocean?”

“When can you return our waste-free ocean back to us?”

Let’s wait for the answers from human beings!