Winter 2006, Issue 9


    Wetlands, the coast’s great protector by Diane Buccheri

    Fish Need Restoration Too by Mary Turnipseed

    Holding Back the Sea by Christopher Hallowell

    Slaughter in Paradise: J’Accuse! by Wolfgang Leander

    Creatures of the Ocean by Ian Bruce, Diane Buccheri, Henry Beston

    Dos Vaquitas by Wallace J. Nichols

    Moontime by the Tides . . . Aluna by Diane Buccheri, Laura Williams

    Simplicity by Le Pham Le

    Unsalted by Vince Deur (DVD review)

    Surf Like a Girl by Rebecca Heller (book review)

    Return to the Sea by Melba Milak

    I Emerge, Cleansed, by Sue Lozada

    Ixchel, the 4th Part by Derek Rowley


    Wetlands, after all, are not a waste of space. They are a treasure chest of natural goods –– soil and water, plants and animals, minerals. Following hurricanes Katrina, we now see why and how wetlands are so valuable and so needed.

"The devastation brought to fishing communities on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005 was particularly comprehensive . . . we all have a vested interest in how restoration of the Gulf Coast and its fisheries is conducted. We need federal agencies to not just rebuild, but to take the opportunity to truly restore the Gulf's ecosystem, both above and below high tide." (Mary Turnipseed, FISH Need RESTORATION TOO)

"Charles Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands as a young man in 1835. His keen observation . . . led him to his revolutionary theory of natural selection and evolution of species. Herman Melville sailed to the Galápagos on a whaling vessel and wrote a captivating travel report about . . . 'Las Encantadas', the 'Enchanted Islands'. In 1978, UNESCO declared the Galápagos a World Heritage Site. Yet, this paradise is in trouble. "Here, as everywhere, shark finning is brutal and we are taking the lives of sharks that are not only beautiful, but necessary to the chain of life on earth." Writer Wolfgang Leander is a shark lover, a freediver, an underwater photographer, and a passionate fighter.

Creatures of the ocean . . . sharks, manatees, the vaquita marina, naval sonar . . . "We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. They are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the Earth." (Henry Beston, author of his memoir, THE OUTERMOST HOUSE: A YEAR OF LIFE ON THE GREAT BEACH OF CAPE COD)

Moontime by the Tides . . . Aluna, a lunar tidal clock, is Laura Williams' creation and design. "The Moon shows us past and future, its waxing and waning illustrating a coming from and going to, and reassuringly coming back again, for time is cyclical."

Under the moon's light in the sand, South Vietnamese poet Le Plam Le, exiled from her homeland, sings her child to peace.

Melba Milak, an American mid-westerner, wonders about the mysterious pull the ocean exerts upon her. "I will return to the sea, for excitement, and times of quiet, for suntan days, and the peace of purple sunsets, and for tranquility in the stillness of inky black nights."

Brokenhearted Sue Lozada find solace at the shore, in the wind and waves. "I let them toss me and take me . . . For a moment, I allow myself to intermingle with my broken dreams and scattered emotions. I emerge from the water, cleansed . . . I notice two seagulls flying by . . . the one behind caws and tries to catch up . . . I laugh."

Ixchel, in an attempt to bring justice to the Mayan culture and avenge her father's death, crosses the line to injustice. A Spanish/Mayan woman, also avenging her father's death, brings justice to his murderer.




Spring 2006, Issue 10




    Cruise Ship Squeeze by Ross A. Klein (book review)

    Sea Turtle Journey by Diane Buccheri

    Bay of Angels by Wallace J. Nichols

    Silent Death by Abigail Alling

    Safer GIllnets for the Marine Life by Norman Holy

    Making Love with the Ocean by Wallace J. Nichols

    The Wind Gypsy by Carolyn Prola

    An Unreasonable Woman by Diane Wilson (book review)

    Fallen Men by Daniella Iannello

    Tomorrow, I Will Walk Down by the Sea by Melba Milak

    Ixchel, the 5th Part by Derek Rowley




    "Imagine an industry comprising a group of felons." Those felons host the vacations of individual and families worldwide. In his CRUISE SHIP SQUEEZE, Ross A. Klein reveals the cruise ship industry and its filthy practices.

"Through eons of miles and eons of time" sea turtles journey. "Having lived with and survived beyond the great dinosaurs, will these ancient creatures continue their survival past man's destructive disruption of their way of life? Their numbers dwindle alarmingly, but it's not too late to save them. You too, can help protect sea turtles from ourselves.

Compelled to protect them himself, Wallace J. Nichols spends his days in the Bay of Angels, hauling "each watery soul in to my arms so that I can set it free on the falling tide."

His colleague and fellow protector of the marine environment, Abigail Alling, describes the ruthless slaughter of dolphins for Sri Lankan fish markets. Caught in gillnets, just like sea turtles, they too, suffer mercilessly, victims of human industry.

Working to create safer gilllnets for the marine life, polymer chemist Norman Holy describes his intricate and fascinating studies and creative process. "The aim of my work is to keep creatures that we don't want to catch, called by-catch, out of our fishing gear, and at the same time, allow fishermen to earn a living."

Wallace J. Nichols speaks of his love for the ocean and its creatures. Wherever he lives, wherever we live, he tells us, "in the mountains or on the coast, the desert, or on the plains", love the ocean. "Do it for yourself, do it for each other, and do it for the ocean."

"Once more he'd step into the sea, a gypsy wind would set him free." Carolyn Prola's gypsy sails through the night under the moonlight . . .

"So 160,000 pounds of salt and hundreds and hundreds of pounds per day of weird chemicals went to a wild, watery cradle woven with cane from marshland and sea grasses and saltwater flats and ancient oyster reefs. Did the bay know and sense the violation?" This "Unreasonable Woman", Diane Wilson, fights the shrimpers, politics, and polluters for the health of her fellow Seadrift, Texas residents, and for the "ebb and flow of a tide and the sound of gray heron feeding and the great wind at its breast and the hundreds and hundreds of years it had been silent and slept beneath the benign stars." She wins, but her battle goes on.

"They looked as if they were on a mission, like army men on the front line ready for battle . . . with every wave came a layer of fallen men." Daniella Iannello sees the sun rest with the waves, "exhausted after their day at war."

Seeking hope, renewal, and peace, tomorrow, Melba Milak will walk down by the sea among the ghost crabs and wampum, through day into "sunset with bright oranges and rosy reds, I will watch the stars blink on one by one, making twinkles of liht in the inky blackness of night."

At dawn, he hears his guard breathing the breaths of sleep and escapes the clutch of Mayan goddess Ixchel, only to barely escape falling prey to her again later that day along the French coast, aided by a Spanish woman, and love interest, running from her clutch.




Summer 2006, Issue 11



    Night Dive by Judith Barrington

    Ocean Noise by Diane Buccheri

    The Living Waters –– Reality of Life by Edna Gordon

    Global Warning from Antarctica expedition log from Global Green USA

    Tracking Polar Bears in the Arctic by Diane Buccheri

    ExxonMobil Owes by Riki Ott

    Predator Fish by Wallace J. Nichols

    Underwater to Get Out of the Rain by Trevor Norton (book review)

    Drawn to Nature through the Journals of Clare Walker Leslie (book review)

    Mystical Sea Goddess by Michael Levy

    Playground on the Sea by Melba Milak

    Ixchel, the 6th Part by Derek Rowley



    Within the ocean’s always moving salty water, sounds of its creatures float with its currents. They don’t need cell phones. They don’t need computers or televisions or GPS device. They need their hearing. Shipping, sonar, and seismic noises drown out the noises the ocean’s creatures need to survive, and physically harm, even destroy them, thus causing ecological damage, cost, and irretrievable waste and loss. Protective measures are needed now. Precautionary and alternative action and practices will protect the ecological health and sustenance needed within the ocean, and for those living on earth dependent upon it –– all of us.

“Up through a stream of her own breath’s bubbles –– up towards where the sea ceiling gleams, she rises, each fathom bringing her closer to air, closer to human, and closer to –– not who she was, but who she’ll become, now that she’s heard the songs. She pops out under the stars. It’s oddly quiet.” (from “Night Dive” by Judith Barrington)

Within one year the pollution we create travels to the ends of the earth, spoiling and fouling the earth’s most pristine areas and oceans, disturbing weather patterns and sea levels throughout the world. Global Green USA’s Finn Longinotto shares his log of the groups’ 2006 Antarctic expedition to send a global warning about climate change and to encourage renewable energy, conservation, and fuel efficiency.

There are 100 million dollars on the table for unanticipated injury to wildlife and wildlands from the Exxon Valdez oil spill –– and no one has collected the payment. These funds could help restore the environment and wildlife affected by the spill –– land and wildlife owned by every American. In Exxon’s case, it’s not an inability to pay. Riki Ott demands that ExxonMobil pay now.

They live on sea ice and sustain themselves with food caught from the sea. With global temperature rise, the amount of sea ice declines, as does their living space, their hunting, and their productivity. During April 2006 the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began a polar bear tracking program using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags. By learning more about their behavior and roaming patterns, USGS scientists can gain insight into how global warming may affect these patterns, and how oil and gas drilling impacts these survivors of the stark cold and rigid wind, facing possible extinction within our lifetime.

Edna Gordon, a Seneca Hen-Hawk Elder of the Haudenoshaunee Iroquois Six Nations Confederacy, tells us with her poetry that where the living waters are in rhythm with the Earth Mother . . . “Peace rolls free with the ebb and flow . . .”

One English boy went UNDERWATER TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN and became a marine scientist. With his book, Trevor Norton, Ph.D takes us into his love affair with the sea.

DRAWN TO NATURE, Clare Walker Leslie draws daily observations in her nature journals accompanied by notes. Noted, these special moments of connection document the natural occurances taking place around us all the time.

Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D, a marine scientist and ocean activist, shares his poetic story of one who comes, gives and takes, and becomes a predator fish.

“. . . we go down to the beach to bathe in the clear waters of the Sea Goddess. She welcomes us into her open arms with sensual, curvaceous pleasure. The warm water feels as though we are back in the womb and verily we are.” (Michael Levy)

On a blue, blue day far into the Pacific off the coast of Guatemala, a parade of porpoises, a mile-long pod of dolphins, a “free-wheelin” sailfish, and birds perched a-top sleepy tortugas –– olive ridley sea turtles –– delight Melba Milak then, and long after she comes ashore.

In the sixth part of the ongoing non-fiction story of Ixchel, Derek Rowley’s hero and heroine swim for their lives only to arrive onto a shimmering hot Nice beach and walk into a band of their captives ruled by the Mayan goddess Ixchel.




Fall 2006, issue 12



    One from Two by Diane Buccheri

    The Culture of Dolphin by Diane Buccheri

    Dancing on Water by Karin Kinsey (book review)

    Fossil Fuels in the Ocean Cycle by Diane Buccheri

    Clean and Renewable Energy Sources by Diane Buccheri

    Late Night by Le Pham Le

    50 Ways to Save the Ocean by David Helbarg (book review)

    All Shrimp Are Not Equal by Jacques Lalonde

    Punta Abreojos by Wallace J. Nichols

    Treating Earth As You Treat Yourself by Michael Levy

    The Rains of October by Melba Milak

    Ixchel, the 7th Part by Derek Rowley



    They make their own place in their social group through play and demonstration of ability, cooperation, demeanor, and leadership. Together, playing games, foraging, communicating, they develop as a group and through development of traditions evolve themselves culturally. Their culture is their own, unique and sophisticated. With that, dolphins reach beyond, into depths unknown to us.

Our consumption of oil and coal for transportation and electricity, by its sheer massiveness, is not only destroying our atmosphere and our land, but is toxifying our ocean and its fish, animals, and plants. Thus, we are destroying the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. And as we pollute the atmosphere, we foul the natural cycle of the oceanic circulation that creates healthy life on earth, and makes survival possible. How else could we travel and live comfortably and effectively? How can we gather energy, live healthier and more productively? Our technologies need refinement for wisest use of our greatest sources of energy.

Shrimp, one of our most popular delicacies, is increasingly on the environmental menu of grievances. For the well being of our oceans, the kind of shrimp we eat is important. Wild American and Mexican shrimp, caught with turtle excluders, are the best choice for consumers. Another good choice, wild-caught cold water shrimp, mostly harvested in the pristine cold waters of the Atlantic and Pacific.

We take a walk along the shoreline in THE RAINS OF OCTOBER with author Melba Milak whose heart sings with the raindrops landing amid the silence of summer’s echo until she is driven inside to wait quietly for tomorrow.

Michael Levy tells us that in TREATING the EARTH AS YOU TREAT YOURSELF we can make our lives fulfilling, and make life on earth more enduring.

During LATE NIGHT poet Le Pham Le journeys despairingly, but under the stars, “the ocean, flat, without waves, always absorbed my pain”.

With the light shining into the deep dark, “PUNTA ABRÉOJOS” –– open your eyes. Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D, celebrates living with open eyes, and indeed, open hearts.

Karin Kinsey’s DANCING ON WATER describes joyful exchanges between two very different species –– dolphins and humans.

To better care for ourselves and the resource we need most –– our ocean –– David Helvarg’s 50 WAYS TO SAVE THE OCEAN makes it simple, and easy to accomplish, with fresh inspiration.

Along with the adventure of Derek Rowley’s IXCHEL fiction series, the mystery deepens and draws us into it wondering . . .

And it all begins with ONE FROM TWO . . .