Although most of us reading this newsletter are doing our best to tidy up our relationship with her, there remains many inimical forces that still want more. In this last year the oilmen prevailed through the “Inflation Reduction Act” to carve out yet more offshore oil leases.
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities still dominate some 40% of the global fisheries market. And while there was some hope that the COVID anthropause may have decreased shipping noise in the ocean, it seems to have just redistributed it from fossil fuel shipping noise to trans-oceanic consumer goods shipping noise, and from deepwater trans-oceanic transport noise to coastal idling noise, as ships lined up to be unloaded at understaffed cargo facilities.
OCR is working “fast and furiously” to stem our near-term noise impacts on the ocean. An growing aspect of our work is ocean education – inviting people to fall in love with the Mother of Life on our Ocean planet. This is under the rubric of informing people about the sea, who would in turn want to preserve what they love.
Toward that end, we have recently taken a couple AP Environmental Science classes out on San Francisco Bay, providing them an intimate experience with a part of the sea that constantly informs their lives. We are encouraged that at least a few of these students will redirect their lives to accommodate – or even embrace the Ocean.
Hopefully these efforts will have us all celebrating International Ocean Day for decades to come!
But I also know that millions of years hence, the ocean will remain something to celebrate, whether or not hominids continue to be included in that party.
Happy Ocean Day!
