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Metallic Monolith Pops up Outside Pittsburgh Candy Store

A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)
A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)
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Metallic Monolith Pops up Outside Pittsburgh Candy Store

A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)
A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)

Since mid-November, shining metal monoliths have suddenly appeared - and then vanished - in the strangest locations, from the Utah desert to a Romanian mountainside.

Now one has popped up outside a Pittsburgh candy store.

Capitalizing on the intrigue surrounding the other monoliths and hoping to provide a distraction from the daily drumbeat of COVID-19 news, the owner of Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, Christopher Beers, commissioned a 10-foot tall, 24-inch wide triangle of plywood covered in sheet metal.

"There is a mystery behind it," said Beers, even though he stripped the whodunit angle from his monolith, which he freely admits was designed to drive up candy sales.

Beers said he was captivated by sculptures that made headlines starting in November, the first appearing in Utah's Red Rock Country, vaguely resembling the so-called monoliths in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

He enlisted a colleague to erect a similar enigma outside his store. One Facebook post was all it took to generate a media buzz around the "mysterious" metallic creation.

"Hopefully, it's a reminder to support small, local businesses that have been so badly hit" by COVID-19, said Beers, owner of the independent chain of 10 candy stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"And isn't it fun to have something to talk about beside the pandemic?!"

Since the monolith went up, business has been brisk at Grandpa Joe's. Customers eagerly take selfies with the monolith before heading inside to load up on Christmas sweets. The Facebook post is also driving candy sales online.

"Come see the Monolith before it mysteriously disappears," said a post on a Facebook page for Grandpa Joe's.

"Is it made out of chocolate?" commented one hopeful fan on the page.

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Tunisia Rehab Barge Offers Hope for Vulnerable Sea Turtles

Marine specialists treat a sea turtle on a care barge in Tunisia's Kerkennah Island, the only one in the Mediterranean, on December 18, 2024. (Photo by Akim REZGUI / AFP)
Marine specialists treat a sea turtle on a care barge in Tunisia's Kerkennah Island, the only one in the Mediterranean, on December 18, 2024. (Photo by Akim REZGUI / AFP)
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Tunisia Rehab Barge Offers Hope for Vulnerable Sea Turtles

Marine specialists treat a sea turtle on a care barge in Tunisia's Kerkennah Island, the only one in the Mediterranean, on December 18, 2024. (Photo by Akim REZGUI / AFP)
Marine specialists treat a sea turtle on a care barge in Tunisia's Kerkennah Island, the only one in the Mediterranean, on December 18, 2024. (Photo by Akim REZGUI / AFP)

On a barge hundreds of meters off the Kerkennah Islands in southern Tunisia, a group of students watches intently as Besma, a recovering sea turtle, shuffles towards the water and dives in, AFP reported.

The barge, used to treat injured loggerhead turtles, is the first floating rehabilitation center for the species in the Mediterranean, its organizers say.

Harboring netted enclosures underwater, it allows the threatened species to receive care in saltwater, its natural habitat.

"It is important that the sea turtles recover in their natural environment," said Hamed Mallat, a marine biologist who heads the UN-funded project.

"We place them in a space that's large enough for them to move and feed more comfortably," he added.

Mallat, a member of the local Kraten Association for Sustainable Development and the International Sea Turtle Society, founded the project last month and said the rehab barge was refashioned from a sunken aquaculture cage.

It can hold up to five sea turtles at a time, each in its own enclosure, and spans 150 square meters (1,610 square feet) at the surface, with netting below to allow the convalescing animals to reach the sea floor.

The loggerhead sea turtle, also known as Caretta caretta, is considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Every year, around 10,000 loggerheads are caught by trawlers and in fishing nets in the waters off Tunisia.

Life Medturtles, an EU-funded sea life conservation project, estimates that more than 70 percent of sea turtle deaths in the Mediterranean are caused by gillnets -- large nets used for mass fishing.

It is often the fishermen themselves who bring the injured turtles to the barge, said Mallat.

The project is also an opportunity to teach younger generations about preserving sea life, he added.

"This is a direct application of the things we study," said 24-year-old Sarah Gharbi, a fisheries and environment student at the National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT).

"It's also a first interaction with marine species that we usually don't see as part of our study or in our laboratories. It's something new and enriching."

Her teacher, Rimel Ben Messaoud, 42, said the barge's "educational value" was in giving students a first-hand experience with marine life conservation.

Due to rising sea temperatures, overfishing and pollution, a number of marine species have seen their migratory routes and habitats shift over time.

Mallat said the project could help study those patterns, particularly among loggerhead sea turtles, as Besma now bears a tracking device.

"It gives us a significant advantage for scientific monitoring of sea turtles, which is somewhat lacking in scientific research in Tunisia," he said.

Mallat said he also hoped to attract the islands' summer tourists to raise awareness about the vulnerable species.