Of the sea

[smokingboot]

After all my earnestness yesterday, I had no intention of writing anything even remotely well-meaning for the next month. This morning, I decided to whip through my friends list before attacking loadsawork (I am better you see! Ha ha! *hack gack*)only to find, via thomryng's post, this link from captainweasel.

http://www.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM


I am so shocked by this. I am a great believer in putting things right; cut-down forests make me very sad, but some part of me hopes and believes we will replant. The desert is a garden but for water. But what f*ckwit poisons the sea? Where do they think this stuff is going to go?

Greed is bad enough, its inevitable combination with stupidity is terrifying. What do you do about someone who will poison sea-life to get money in his/her wallet, in order to buy...to buy what? The base of the food chain is made toxic. The birds and fish are poisoned. What's the fool going to eat?

I feel less anger, but also a certain inexorable practicality when I hear of fishing villages on the coast protesting about fishing quotas. No, I don't want to see their way of life become redundant; I love boats, and harbours, I love fresh fish sold off the quay. But in certain areas the cod are being fished to oblivion. It's a case of cutting quotas now or finding new jobs in a few years time, with cod off the menu forever. No-one wants this.

I don't want to write about the sea like this. I want to write about it as inspiration, in its beauty and moods, its infinite variety. In art or science, in emotion or fact, what aspect of the Sea lacks wonder?

As usual, I feel helpless and useless in the face of real life, and write this here in the hope that some answers come to me.

I'm a dreamer really; One of my way-out-theres has always been to put together an anthology of oceanic stories/songs/poetry and get it published, with all profits going solely towards the recovery of the Big Blue. But I can't imagine a publisher who would want it, and where's the market for it? The sea is to be experienced rather than talked about.

Enough, I am writing myself into a funk. I am going to go away and come back when I have something pointless to say.

Comments

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

Not to comment on the content of your post whatsoever since a) I haven't clicked on the link and b) I agree with your anger at people polluting the sea but just to make a stand for the humble desert (which is about as humble as, well, the sea really!) as I feel to describe is as a garden but for the water is to do it down.

Fair enough we don't want an entire planet of desert (an entire planet of dessert on the other hand...) but there is beauty and wonder to be found amongst the salt and the sand of a desert just as much as there is in the more verdant parts of our landscape.

And if you haven't seen it yet and can get hold of a copy, I think you will greatly enjoy watching Luc Besson's Atlantis: some amazing footage of sea-life set to music by Eric Serra. It's an awe-inspiring film and absolutely beautiful; made by a man absolutely in love with the sea and it shows.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I can understand what you are saying. I was thinking more of those extraordinary moments of season when rain falls and the desert blooms. The ones I have seen are indeed awesome, as are the icey kingdoms which seem as inimical to life. There is great delicacy and strength there.

I will keep a look out for Atlantis, it sounds beautiful.

I am trying not to see the polar ice caps as crumbling pavlovas ruined by raspberries. You should not put these ideas into the heads of mad potes you know!

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the protesting about the fishing quota stems from the suggestion that the fishing will then be done by others rather than not at all, and therefore cutting the quota is damaging the economy without benefitting the fish. Recalling the cod wars and the number of Russian trawlers I've seen moored in Ullapool, it's not as far fetched as it might sound.

[nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com]

Become a Greenpeace Ocean Defender?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

In which case, the protection of the breeding waters and prevention of unregulated fishing becomes an important issue. The argument that 'if we don't take the fish, someone else will,' is a dangerous one. There is a depleting resource. Everybody wants it. Some will try to steal it, and thereby hasten its end. The point is not to join them, but to stop them.

Most of the material I have read has focused on whitefish suppliers protesting at the quota cuts, not because someone else will take the fish, but because it puts the industry through such hard times. I understand their dismay, but what other option is there, if people want to be fishing for cod 20 years from now?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I'm a member of Greenpeace, but my involvement goes no further than paying my subscription and reading the yearly report. I didn't know ordinary people could get involved on the boats. Will check it out!

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

an anthology of oceanic stories/songs/poetry and get it published, with all profits going solely towards the recovery of the Big Blue. But I can't imagine a publisher who would want it, and where's the market for it?

Sounds like a perfectly marketable project to me. After all, who wouldn't prefer to be deep in a memory of the ocean on a weekday morning (even if it's someone else's) rather than wondering if your fellow commuter is ever going to blow their nose? Will prod Dad if you want: he used to be commisioning editor for [mumble] and they'll probably listen to him.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, please prod away! I would be very interested in his thoughts.

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

OK, before I do so, could you a) send me the idea by email so I don't have to tell him about my LJ and b) give me a run down of what you've done professionally (all I know about is the 2000AD storyline and rumours of Mills and Boon.)

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Happy to!

Do you have a private email address?

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

just a few... use djinna[a]hotmail.com (please excuse the cloaked @.)