IN A BARN IN Forest Knolls artists Judith and Richard Lang look
over heavy, synthetic fish-nets that were pulled from the belly
of a sperm whale that washed up near McClures Beach in the Point
Reyes National Seashore in 2008. It was the more than 450 pounds
of nets that got stuck in the whale's digestive tract that
ultimately killed it. Now the Langs - who are married - are
working with the Marine Mammal Center on artwork that will
highlight the problem with trash in the world's ocean and its
impact on marine life. "When they opened the whale up it was
filled with netting and plastic debris," said Judith Lang, as
she held some of the 162 pounds of thick, heavy netting that
will go into the project. "Just feel how heavy it is." She and
her husband have sorted through the material and will build a
piece to be displayed at an exhibit called "The Ghost Below"
which will open Dec. 1. at the mammal center in the Marin
Headlands. "We don't see it, but it is there," said Anne Veh of
Mill Valley, curator of the exhibi