Today was a perfect paddling day, but there was no paddling. At the
moment I'm out of commission due to pushing four kids on a spinning
tire swing. What a sadistic thing that is! It's only too fun to push
and twirl these kids around for long periods of time. It's intoxicating
to see them laughing and screaming. That swing is really insidious,
though. I never felt the pain I was inflicting on a variety of muscles
until two days later when I lay gasping in bed because every breath
caused crushing pain in my chest. Who woulda thought? A tire swing!

So I read instead. I finished a thought-provoking book that I heard
about from a DVD of Peter Benchley's memorial service. I forget how I
came to have this DVD. It must have come from some organization like
Surfrider or Blue Ocean Institute. Well, however I came to have it, it
left a huge impression on me.

Peter Benchley did so much to inform people about the wonders of the
ocean and the need to protect it from the harm we humans thoughtlessly
inflict upon it. He was a tireless ocean advocate, spurred into action,
a little bit, I suppose, by the near hysterical fear of sharks his most
famous book, "Jaws" instilled in people.

"The Girl from the Sea of Cortez" was published in 1982. It is now out
of print. I found it on Alibris, a website that specializes in rare and
out of print books. So for about $5 I bought this quick reading book.
In the memorial DVD, a friend of Peter Benchley talks briefly about
this book and mentions how it was "ahead of its time." Benchley
certainly foresaw the dangers of careless over-fishing and just plain
stupid fishing methods. How would he know that 26 years later our major
predator fish would have taken such a serious hit? Blue-fin tuna have
basically crashed, as have many of the billifish species and sharks.
And how many people have eaten wild-caught Atlantic salmon, a species
once so plentiful that maids in England had it stated in their
contracts that they would not eat salmon more than three or four times
a week? That prisoners in England once revolted because they got sick
of eating wild Atlantic salmon every day?

The "Girl of the Sea of Cortez" reads like a fantasy in its
descriptions of Paloma, a girl who free-dives on a sea-mount so far
undiscovered by local fishermen. The fishermen are mostly poor and
don't have the depth finding or fish finding equipment so readily
available these days to locate the wildly alive and heavily
fish-populated sea-mount. Paloma visits her secret underwater sanctuary
every day to marvel at the beauty and diversity of the wild-life there.
She even rescues a giant manta ray that's been caught in lines from a
fishing net.

All hell breaks loose, though, when Paloma's greedy brother, who wants
to earn enough money to break out of their poor fishing town no matter
how many fish he lays to waste, tricks her into revealing the location
of this previously "undiscovered" sea-mount. He and his partners rain
death upon a variety of the fish species dwelling there. They waste
hundreds of pounds of fish in order to pick out those few worth the
most, apparently living by the Machiavellian creed, "the ends justify
the means." It could be a completely depressing and all too familiar
story, except, and this is where the fantasy part comes in (again), the
manta that Paloma rescued intervenes and saves the sea-mount from
further destruction.

That Benchley chooses to end the story in this manner makes me wonder
if he thoroughly depressed himself while writing it. Maybe he wants to
illustrate metaphorically that the only way to rescue the ocean from
certain destruction will be some herculean action only achievable in
our wildest fantasies. Maybe he couldn't bring himself to write about
what will be inevitable if we don't get a grip on the madness of our
greedy exploitation of the ocean's resources, or our continual "bad
habits" on land that also degrade the quality of estuaries and coastal
areas, and consequently, our ocean. That a manta and one woman could
save a sea-mount might be a metaphor for what one person can do in
their corner of the world. We just need people, masters of their own
corners, to stand up and fight (figuratively speaking) for their
section of the world--and the ocean. But first, I suppose, we need more
people to care.

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Paddlesport is an awesome event about everything that has anything to
do with paddling. John Durrea, who organizes this whole thing, stages
this amazing three day event to highlight a variety of products,
groups, and people who come together to promote their love of the sport
and the watery environment, our free playground, which we all enjoy and
need to protect.

One among the bunch of wonderful people who will be there is Ray Fusco. He paddled with me and some others into Manhattan. (It was during vessel "rush hour" traffic which was when the tide was running its best.) He organizes the
"Mayor's Cup," race among other events.

I'll be there, too. I will be speaking on Saturday, March 29 at 12:30. Maybe I'll get to see some of you there!


See more about the show here.

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Here is is an excerpt from David Helvarg's "Blue Frontier" Bluenotes... (see Blue Notes)


Ocean Champion Sam Farr (d. CA) has far and away the best ocean bill
now in Congress. Oceans 21 would, among other things, require the more
than 20 federal agencies overseeing our coasts and oceans conform to a
national policy for healthy ocean ecosystems and provide funding for
regional efforts at marine protection by local, state, tribal and
activist groups.

While the bill's been around for a while it's only now coming up for
its first ever vote in the Fisheries Wildlife and Oceans Subcommittee
of the Natural Resources Committee.

They're due to mark it up (but hopefully not water it down) in the next
month or so.

To do the right thing House members probably need to get some mail and
phone calls from their home districts. Subcommittee members include:
Bordallo of Guam, Abercrombie of Hawaii, Capps of California, Cole of
Oklahoma, Faleomavaega of Somoa, Kennedy of RI, Kidee of Michigan, Kind
of Wisconsin, Ortiz of Texas, Pallone of NJ, Sali of Idaho and McMorris
Rodgers of Washington.

If any of these representatives belong to you please let them know
you'd like this moved on while there's still a living ocean to protect.

On the Senate side we're expecting a comprehensive Ocean Protection Act
to be introduced by Senator Boxer's office any day now...and have been
for several months.

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03/22/2008 | Judy T. Howard (jtrostelhoward att hotmail dott com) If only we could have our Presidential candidates express their views on this very important concern...!