Where is the Human Interest?

Roz Savage is having a time.  She rowed the first 350 nm across the Indian Ocean when her single-woman rowboat was "a-salted."  She wasn't stranded, or in need of rescue, rather she was playing it smart by doubling back in order to fix her leaky hatch that allowed salt water to drip down on her desalinater that caused it to break.  Salt water is benign in most cases except when you have to sit in it for long periods of time (I experienced that in the South Atlantic-ouch), or if it gets into electrical/metal equipment.  As she was being towed in (taking a free ride - who wouldn't) the press was hovering like turkey vultures over fresh roadkill. She wrote,"Why do they focus on the “human interest” stories when the really big news is, I suppose, the ultimate “human interest” story – what should we be doing in the best interests of the entire human race?" Roz posted this in her blog frustrated because the real story is our ocean in crisis.  Between over fishing, acidification, plastic pollution, oil spills, chemical pollutants, and cover-ups, it is in sad state of affairs.  Roz has taken matters into her own hands, literally, by rowing around the world to bring awareness to the problems facing our world's ocean.

Roz is among some of my favorite ocean warriors like Charlie Moore - Algalita Marine Research Foundation, Kurt Lieber - Ocean Defenders Alliance, Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummings - 5Gyres.  I've had the privilege of working along side these groups.  But most recently, I have been given the opportunity to talk about my work with Algalita and 5Gyres Saturday April 30th at a reception with Chris Aguilar, a lifelong surfer, fundraiser, and filmmaker.  Chris is involved in a film project illustrating Jenny Kalmbach and Morgan Hoesterey, paddle boarders, and activists who paddled the Hawaiian Islands raising awareness to plastic pollution and money for Algalita Marine Research Foundation.  He is also raising money for victims of the Japan tsunami and is touring with his movie project.

More later,

Bonnie Over the Ocen

This plastic pollution in the ocean is no simple matter.

It’s easy to blame a certain industry or group for these problems but if we were honest with ourselves, we’d recognize that many more groups than we might like to acknowledge contribute. And one contributing party might be looking us in the mirror each morning.

I saw two things this week that reinforced the idea that marine debris is caused by more sources than we’d like to imagine. There are also easy solutions, though we have to start with acknowledging the problem.

Surfrider Foundation sends out a weekly newsletter and their last one said that 7 whales have washed up on the coast of Italy recently, and they died because they ingested plastic bags, among other things.

I picked up 3 bags on the two block journey from my house to the bus stop. Do you know how big whales are? They’re BIG. Like the size of a school bus big. I bring my own grocery bags regularly but I still use garbage bags for the non-recyclable or non-compostable items I have, and I had 2 large clear plastic bags that held recyclables from a recent work-related event to dispose of. Plastic bags and plastic film of all varieties are everywhere. The more we can reduce our use of them, the less chance there is that our plastic bags will end up killing a whale. A 13 ton whale. Talk about ego to use something so briefly that can kill such a large and magnificent creature.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/12/18/Beached-whales-killed-by-ingesting-plastic/UPI-47351261152108/

The second thing is a forwarded blog entry from my girl Danielle. I’ve noticed that participants during local and televised international cycling events, marathons, half-marathons, etc., take cups of water, energy drinks, or now these funky energy gels from volunteers. What happens to these items? They get tossed on the side of the road. In my dreams, the race committee has a clean up crew to pick up this waste. The link below is a blog entry that shows that this stuff doesn’t magically disappear.

http://iwriteitinajournal.blogspot.com/

The lesson here is to use less stuff, pick up after yourself, and for pete’s sake, if you see a piece of litter, pick it up.

Jennifer O'Keefe