Dead Baby Penguins on Rio de Janeiro’s Beaches

Can you imagine what’s it like to go to the beach and find hundreds of dead baby penguins washed up on the beach? Well the beach go-ers of Rio de Janeiro beach know. At last count, more than 400 penguins, swept from the shores of Patagonia and Antarctica, have been found dead on Rio de Janeiro’s beaches according to Michael Astor from Associated Press. So what are the causes?

Some say over-fishing; “Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat “and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents.” Others say pollution, but scholars has pointed out it’s not likely. Instead, they suggested global warming; “I don’t think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we’re seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher,” biologist Erli Costa said.

Life Before Death: Photography of the departed

Taking portraits, easy. What about taking portraits before and after death?

“This sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died is a challenging and poignant study. The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying – and living.”

If you check out this article from guardian.co.uk, you’ll find the two portraits of all of the subjects were taken within a month. It’s strange how they can be so different within a month, being alive and being dead.

Life Before Death is at the Wellcome Collection from April 9 to May 18.

Dead boy writing

A: “Are you sad?”

Me: “No”

A: “Are you telling the truth?”

Me: “I always tell the truth”

A: “I know you do. But sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we’re sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes we are sad but we don’t really know we are sad. So we say we aren’t sad. But really we are. I mean, you just started a blog that’s all dark and stuff.”

Me: “I’m not sad.”