This drawing is celebration of the micro algae of the oceans and here I’ve depicted the smallest creatures as the largest, and the largest creatures as the smallest.

At the centre of the food chain, the precious jewel like algae dances as it absorbs the light of the sun converting the dissolved carbon dioxide in the water into the oxygen upon which we all depend on. The algae are also the primary food source for the other creatures in the food chain that gather in this circle -from the uniquely beautiful grazers of the algae (copepods), followed by the sand eels right through to the whales. Around the 1980s sand eels around Shetland saw a massive decline with disastrous effects on sea bird populations. Industrial fishing of sand eels (for making into farmed salmon food and fertiliser) was initially blamed for the decline with major court battles playing out to get this practice stopped. The ecological picture is not fully understood but the main species of the algae grazers (copepods- that the sand eels eat) have either been pushed further north to colder waters or they are emerging at a different time of year to the emergence of the sand eels. A mismatch of timing and disrupted syncretisation of the food chain caused by human activity and with massive ecological ripples echoing through that is most obviously visible in decline of the sea birds.

This picture is a reminder that in ecological terms the smallest is the largest, and that what we do to the smallest life forms we simultaneously do to the largest life forms including ourselves. Here the sand eels swim through this interconnected web of life, carriers of food to the birds, fish and sea creatures. The song of the sand eels.