Winter 2005, Issue 5



   Florida Manatees by Diane Buccheri

   Manatee Art

   Hurricanes by Delphin Mae

   Thoughts During a Hurricane by Melba Milak

   Weight of Water by Janelle Segarra

   Sea Life by Deia Gould

   Strangelove Ocean by Debbie MacKenzie

   Stays With Me by Jason Segarra


  
   Sirens from the past, temptresses who lured sailors off their sea path, their allure still works its magic. Yet, like us, manatees are
   mammals. They have swum the waters of Florida during their long history. However, they now struggle to survive the chronic
   and debilitating effect from injuries caused by accidents with boats and fishing gear, loss of habitat, and pollution. The survival
   of their species is now endangered. It is vitally important to reduce human-caused manatee mortality and injury and to control
   their loss of habitat to coastal development.

    Winds of 74 miles per hour spiral around a low pressure center . . . a hurricane is born. Hurricanes spawn from tropical cyclones
   formed over tropical waters. As our atmosphere continues to warm, as the sea level rises, hurricane activity and intensity is
   expected to increase. Close to shore, property and life are immediately at risk. Coastal development beckons economic
   disaster –– at the coast, near the coast, far inland –– for everyone.

   A mid-westerner who has come to the coast to seek solace and peace, is trapped in a hurricane –– alone at the water's edge.
   Moment by moment the elements battle . . .

    "How swiftly the illusory veil of mortal supremacy recedes as the expansive arms of elemental greatness unfold, encompassing
   cobra-like, our delusions of grandeur. Lady Ocean walks the Earth with burning anger, shaming boastful skyscrapers, tossing 
   homes, tearing up strips of road like loose threads from a faulty garment. The weight of water is unsuperable, its wrath no
   respecter of persons, and one can only wonder if the Ocean is simply acting in the manner in which we taught her.
   Destruction." (Janelle Segarra)

    "The most musical animal under the sea is the male humpback whale, whose unique songs evolve over time." Deia Gould
   gathers tidbits of information for the sea. Yet, humans have 95% percent of the ocean still to explore . . . Giant kelp has no roots,
   yet can grow to 200 feet, and is the world's largest and fastest growing plant in the sea . . . A sponge that lives in the ocean
   produces within itself a chemical with cancer fighting potential and preliminary scientific experiments show the compound to be fairly non-toxic to normal cells, though it kills cancer cells, remarkably . . . Existence on earth depends upon interdependency. All of life is intertwined. Health and continuance exists within change and adaptation that is possible only through a blended harmony of growth, death, and renewal. Life on earth is out of sync. Humans, perceiving themselves independent, empowered by industrialization and capital, misperceive the way of earthly life. We dig our graves and watch ourselves fall. Others fall too, more quietly, wordless and helpless."

STRANGELOVE OCEAN: "Unsuspected effects of fishing and whaling on the global carbon cycle. In our ongoing experiment, (pulling everything that we can catch out of the sea), are we working towards the creation of a human-induced, modern . . . sea bereft of life, that exhales CO2."Debbie MacKenzie packs a hard punch, one that's been coming. "The most unlikely element in this scenario, of course, is that there will be any humans alive at that future time to study the ocean's fossil record."

"A dark, illimitable ocean bound, without dimension, where length, breadth, and light and time and place are lost." (John Milton, PARADISE LOST)




Spring 2005, Issue 6



   Tsunami by Diane Buccheri

   A Walk in the Quiet by Melba Milak

   He’e Nalu, the Sport of Kings by Delphin Mae

   A Wave of Life by Diane Buccheri

   Soul Sailing by Dana Miller

   Whispered Takings by Diane Buccheri

   Between Here and There by Deia Gould

   Sunrise on Palm Beach Island by Dorothy Block

   Ixchel, the 1st Part by Derek Rowley

   

    TSUNAMI! “We awake in the morning to the sea’s rhythm. As the waves come and go, we breathe, and pace our days and
   nights . . . Alas –– she who we trusted most gave us her own warning . . . Wide open, she rose from the fault’s depth and was
   hurtled forth. Swelled and swirling, she came to the threshold of our land, then onto our land, all powerful. She didn't need to
   take us. She is dirtied now. Our waste is her unwanted gain. Can we bear that moment’s pain? Ours forever, it ripples and
   spreads. Must we now turn towards her again, beaten bereft, forlorn, torn? We pick ourselves up, with arms around one
   another, and carry those who can no longer walk. Our breath weeps. With her coming and going, we too, must come and
   go. The rhythm, broken, begins again.” (Diane Buccheri)

    A WALK IN THE QUIET: “And while I listen to the waves whisper secrets to my soul, and listen to the wind whistle music to my
   heart, and feel the stillness within myself on the strip of sand beside the water and celebrate the sheer joy of life, I will know
   peace and calmness and quiet.” (Melba Milak)

    “. . . endlessly searching the perfect waves, seeking the stoke, the rush of riding down the face, peeling through the tubes,
   one with the elements . . .” HE‘E NALU, THE SPORT OF KINGS, by Delphin Mae takes us into the history of surfing, back thousands
   of years: “Fishermen long ago began riding the waves to more easily carry their catch back to the beach. Around 2,000 B.C.
   Asians left their home shores, riding the seas for new home territory, necessarily with great knowledge of the sea and skill, for 
   survival. They fish netted from the islands and rode canoes in and out of the surf.” 20th century surf pioneers surf with the soul
   of the ocean, and enliven the sport with modern day style, technology, technique, and daring. (Delphin Mae)

    "According to the estimations of marine zoologists, 90% of the world's ocean is biological desert. Ten percent of the world's
   ocean is home to more than 90% of all living creatures on earth. In the intertidal zone, wind and rock, water and sand collide and join forces. The essential building blocks of life –– oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen –– come together in the intertidal zone. Life started in this tidepool. Ancestors of every major group of earth's invertebrates can be found in one tidepool. And the vertebrates? Connections continue to be made with ongoing discoveries. In BETWEEN HERE AND THERE Deia Gould shares his gatherings of facts and information, salty and miraculous, from the intertidal zone found on the beach and at the water's edge.

"To stand at the edge of the sea . . . is to have knowledge of things that are as eternal as any earthly life can be." (Rachel Carson, UNDER THE SEA WIND)




Summer 2005, Issue 7



   Free Will by Michael Levy

   Nova Scotia Grey Seal Hunt by Debbie MacKenzie

   The Beach by Tasha Lief

   Oil’s Toxic Legacy: The Exxon Valdez Spill and Beyond by Riki Ott

   I am the ocean by Sue Lozada

   Shipbreaking Claims Lives by Janelle Segarra

   Floating Islands by Chet Van Duzer

   On One Small Barrier Island by Brandon Wilson

   Sand Castles in the Sky by Melba Milak

   Ixchel, Part 2 by Derek Rowley

   Passing the Torch by Diane Buccheri

   

    “Approximately 500 grey seal pups were killed during the first season of the renewed commercial grey seal hunt in Nova
   Scotia this past winter. The pelts of those killed in February 2005 were sent to a plant in Newfoundland that processes pelts from
   the hundreds of thousands of harp seals hunted every year. The Nova Scotia grey seal hunters were unable to organize their
   operation to the scale they had hoped during this first season . . . but what will they manage to do by next winter?

    Prior to human exploitation, the waters of Atlantic Canada teemed with unbelievable numbers of fish, while supporting far
   larger seal populations than those in existence today. The fish-seal secret of the ages was cooperation and subtle mutual
   support. Seals have 25 million years of successful coexistence with fish to their credit . . . We are on the verge of discovering
   that seal exclusion zones will also prove to be lifeless fish exclusion zones . . . and when we do realize this, today’s fisheries
   science will have hit the wall too.” (Debra MacKenzie, NOVA SCOTIA GREY SEAL HUNT)

    “Fifteen years ago, the sight of beautiful Prince William Sound awash in crude oil, accompanied by nightmarish images of
   oil-soaked sea otters and birds, touched the hearts of people around the world. But after massive cleanup efforts, the sound,
   its people, and its wildlife have returned to life as usual –– right?

    Wrong. The Exxon Valdez oil spill’s environmental effects are long-lived and far-reaching. If we are unaware of the this
   ongoing legacy, it’s because of a large-scale corporate cover-up fueled by layer upon layer of myth. The popular version of what happened in Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez spill is Exxon’s story.”

Riki Ott concludes in OIL’S TOXIC LEGACY: THE EXXON VALDEZ SPILL AND BEYOND “Ultimately we need to find the courage, wisdom, and vision to solve our challenges in ways that will meet the needs of all life, reversing the colossal threat of widespread oil pollution by reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.”

“A floating island . . . floating islands do indeed exist on six of the seven continents and sometimes in the oceans between them . . . Floating islands are buoyed by the light, spongy tissues of certain aquatic plants, by gases released into their soil by decomposing vegetation, or by both of these forces. Chet Van Duzer describes and illustrates floating islands. ‘These accounts are of particular interest to evolutionary biologists, as they lend support to the theory that floating islands have been important in the dispersal of plant and animal species across the oceans, and thus important in the process of evolution."

"Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble." (Carl Jung)




Fall 2005, Issue 8



   The Call of the Sea by Carolyn Prola

   Oceans Within by Lisa Denning

   A Native Son Speaks by Jason Segarra

   Soulmate Cosmological Action by Henry and Erika Monteith (book review)

   The Joys of Live Alchemy by Michael Levy (book review)

   What Can I Do? by Lisa Harrow (book review)

   Musings from the Sea by Dorothy Block

   Tropical Tango in Micronesia by Brandon Wilson

   She Was the Sea by Wallace J. Nichols

   Serenity on the Sea by Melba Milak

   Ixchel, the 3rd Part by Derek Rowley

   

    Lisa Denning lives with OCEANS WITHIN. “Weightless and free. Floating on my back for as long as I could 
   and gazing up at the sky, I would feel all of my worries slowly disappear as the ocean held me in her arms. Nothing else mattered and I was completely at peace.

During my latter years of high school, I went through an intense experience with an eating disorder that nearly ended my life. I withdrew completely from anything and everything that I loved and focused only on food and losing weight. It was my entire world for several years as I withdrew more and more. Everything else became too much to deal with and eventually fell away, including swimming . . . I wanted to disappear, and I was, slowly. Everything else was too painful.”

As Lisa becomes healthy again, “The morning after I arrived on the island, I got up early and drove down to the bay. The water was calm and light was just beginning to shine. I sat there for a few minutes before seeing the first splash . . . I saw a group of five dolphins nearing. I dove down to meet them as they came spiraling up all around me. I was home again.”

A NATIVE SON SPEAKS: The island of Puerto Rico has been stewing in controversy since its acquisition resulting from the Spanish-American War of 1898 . . . For the people of Vièques, long after the occupation, the poisonous legacy of the U.S. military continues to thwart the very ability to live.” The bombing has stopped, but “the occupation fo destruction continues to disintegrate, spread, and leach its materials into the water, land, and air of Vièques, into its ecosystems and its people . . .”

“We drift out of Kailua-Kona Pier on the Big Island of Hawai’i . . . We’re enveloped in a shroud sprinkled with the twinkling illumination of a thousand stars. The next several days were spent in euphoric daze, a cloud of tropical bliss. The seas live up to their Pacific name with skies briefly punctuated by lazy clouds. Time is only measured by the frequent delicious meals.” And the TROPICAL TANGO TO MICRONESIA takes hold. “Just outside the protective ring of coral sand, a holiday hurdy gurdy of bloated clouds gather. Then the seas churn in delirious frency and relentlessly chase our vessel for the next four days . . . those frothing waves push us to our limits, transforming a bucolic rock-a-bye serenity into a crazed “chuck-chucka” tango . . ."

For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it. (Jacques Cousteau)