Salish Sea Hero: Aniela Guzikowski
Salish Sea wildlife is lucky to count 7th grader, Aniela Guzikowski, as a friend, even the mermaids and krakens! Why? Because when she started to understand how plastics harm marine life, she also started to do something about it.
Aniela snorkeling to photograph a beautiful eelgrass meadow in Sechelt Inlet, thanks to successful eelgrass restoration there by SeaChange. Photo by Vicki Guzikowski
Aniela loves the sea. She loves swimming, snorkeling, and paddling, especially on family getaways to the Sunshine Coast. Because she loves it, she wants to keep the sea clean. On a beach clean-up she saw the impacts of foam from unsealed floating docks, as tiny pieces of this foam had washed up along the beach. These pieces look like food to some sea animals and get gobbled up way too often.
Then her uncle told her that cigarettes have plastic in them. She didn’t believe him at first, then learned that the filters in cigarettes are made from cellulose acetate, a plastic that causes lesions in plants and leaks chemicals into the water that can kill small fish. Fish like the salmon she helps care for as a Mossom Creek Hatchery expert volunteer.
Aniela cleaning up plastic debris from the sea using a pool net and protective gloves. Photo by Vicki Guzikowski
That plastic is used as a filter in the cigarette butts and those butts make it to the sea easily when washed into drains and creeks from streets and sidewalks where they are tossed. So, Aniela helped the Board of Directors from Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society (BIMES), including her mom, to start a campaign for a “Butt Free BC.”
Cigarette butts that will wash to the sea if left until the next rain shower. Photo by Mira Castle
This is one way she helps to inform people to be mindful of how they dispose of their cigarettes and keep them out of ecosystem and out of the food chain. She helps lead the charge. Together she and other volunteers have picked up about 10,000 cigarette butts from streets, creeksides, and beaches near her Coquitlam home over the last six months.
Aniela wants a clean ocean for all, no ifs, ands, or butts.
Releasing pink salmon fry into Mossom Creek. Photo by Paul Steeves
Aniela started volunteering to help salmon at the Mossom Creek Hatchery when she was just 10. The same hatchery her mom wrote about for her school newspaper back in highschool. Mossom Creek salmon run in their family. At the hatchery Aniela checks and feeds the baby salmon and runs water quality tests using chemistry to make sure the water is clean, cool, and clear for the fry and smolts.
Aniela shares ways to shift our thinking about how we use and dispose of plastics with her friend, Mason Vander Ploeg on a TEDx in Surrey, BC Photo by Alex Chambers
All of her actions have caught the attention of news media and organizations who work to keep our water clean for people and wildlife. This includes TEDx Bear Creek, who featured a talk by Aniela and her friend, Mason Vander Ploeg, last month’s Salish Sea Hero.
Aniela with her crocheted kraken, Hermie. Photo by Vicki Guzikowski
Between cleaning up plastics and helping salmon, Aniela is helping all Salish Sea wildlife, from phytoplankton to one her favorite predators, the Steller sea lion. But Aniela doesn’t play favorites. She has yet to meet a sea creature she hasn’t loved, even the kraken (she even crocheted one herself)!
Don’t worry, krakens are only mythological creatures…we think. You might have a chance to find out for yourselves; Aniela is writing her first novel, which involves a mermaid teen faced with problems: plastics in the ocean, and an evil kraken overlord.
Aniela is just a normal kid who likes to read, write, and crochet, and who happens to love the ocean. She also knows that a normal kid can make a difference. When asked what Aniela would like to share with 800 Junior SeaDoctors, she said this:
“Every small action you make counts, even if it’s just using a reusable water bottle, that helps.
By 2050, scientists estimate there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. But it’s not too late. If we all make small but meaningful changes, together we can make a big difference.
We have a dream of clean, healthy oceans, filled with life for future generations. If we all work together, we can make this dream a reality.
Our future absolutely depends on what we do now because when you love something you want to protect it.”
Aniela, you are a true Salish Sea Hero. Thank you for all you do to help heal the sea and lead others to do the same.