The ocean as a living entity (not hippie crap)

I moved to the oceanfront in January and for the reasons you allude to, I already know I will never be able to live inland again. This, coming from someone who has spent over 90% of their life 25 miles from the ocean. I treasure it every day, but also think daily about how damn spoiled I'm getting by having it here. If you give reverence to it daily, I don't think you can take it for granted. I'm very, very fortunate to have scored a spot right on the water for a great price and have been putting lots of effort into nesting and making this place my surf haven. I'll have to post some pics of the decor as you cats will really dig it.

I'm sitting here at 5am having not slept (irregular patters are typical for me) and all I can think about is how to squeeze a quality sesh in on what is my busiest, most committed day of the week for work and personal tasks. All I can hear is the waves outside my door and she's calling me. Much like how we must yield to the power in that wave or the will of the ocean to give us waves or not, I gotta answer her call. It's always a good choice because of the reward and the healing and the awakening.

Enough preaching. Yeah, to answer the original poster, there's an infinite experience of enrichment and learning in this salty lady. It kicks a$$. Give me another couple months and I may have simplified my existence to no phone and only Internet to fraternize and learn and share with you dogs on here. That and purify myself 1-4x per day in the salt ride. And lay on the sand after with a couple mermaids. They seem to be emerging at a vigorous pace now that the sun has come out and it's breaking 60-70 each day. Bout time. Then again, eating white to the grill during Nemo was just as fulfilling in different ways. It's all a gift.

 

You're right... ocean water is biologically "alive." And I agree... it's an interesting concept.

 

I'm not sure why you would question the ocean as a living entity, its habitat to millions of species.

 

The Oceans are so much more complex and biologically diverse than any land mass could ever be.

Remember, all life on land came from the ocean--not the other way around.

 

Dude read "The Cosmic Serpent"...not strictly about the ocean but about DNA/consciousness/intelligence in nature in general...not gonna get too spacey on you guys but looking at the planet as a living entity makes perfect sense to me.

 

It an interesting comparison to make, and thought provoking. I'm not sure i see the point in comparing the "sophisticiation" of the unfathomable amount of information stored in the cells of an entire ecosystem, with the material stored in all of the libraries of mankind. Level of sophistication seems subjective to me (and potentially troubling that the author of the quote appoints himself as the decider) although I do tend to agree with it. Higher complexity, yes, forest and ocean alike.

What's worrisome how freely we manipulate these complex and ok "sophisticated" ecosystems, and how comfortable we are in our belief that we can ascertain and deal with the consequences of altering something that is more complex than what we are capable of creating ourselves.

 

this is the reason I've gotten off the seafood train.

[video=youtube;exyjIeJubs0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exyjIeJubs0[/video]

that plus all the stuff in the ocean, like Corexit, radiation and chemical dumping. I love seafood but I love the ocean more.

 

There is a HUGE difference between large industrial fishing operations and what we have the most of in the US: small, owner-operated operations. However, if Catch Shares are implemented you will see only large industrial fishing operations like the one you reference (thanks land-locked environmentalists!).

The key is to eat local seafood that comes from fishermen who live in your community--they have just as much at stake in terms of viable fisheries and are generally active in conservation... although it may not toe the agenda-driven narrative coming from PEW and NOAA.

You want to help the world's oceans and fish populations? Lobby the UN to stop turning a blind eye to fishing fleets from 3rd and 2nd world countries and, most importantly: ASIA. Lobby your congressmen to join those who want to keep foreign fishing fleets out of our Federal Waters. Stop eating imported seafood of ANY kind.



Just another tidbit: NC Shrimpers are collectively coming together right now to address reducing and in some cases eliminating by-catch and seafloor habitat interaction in their fishery. Some of the finer points they have come up address the regulations as to where TED's and FED's are supposed to be placed on a trawl (current placement mandated by the feds is not optimum and it's illegal to put them anywhere else... even if it means 100% safe turtle ejection), ways to add additional sorting nets within a trawl that immediately directs by-catch (currently illegal, period), adding culling tanks on the boats, shortening trawl times, etc...
My point is, these folks know that we're all in this together. There is no such thing as an industrial shrimping operation in NC, these folks own maybe two traditional shrimp trawlers at most. So, I support these people by buying as much NC seafood as I can afford and refusing to eat ANY seafood that comes any further away than the East Coast.


Sorry for the rant, I've just got a chip on my shoulder about the "all fishermen are killing the ocean" narrative...

 

Keeping the scope larger, I think we humans should acknowledge that we actually aren't the center of the universe, yet only one species on a planet of millions of species, in a solar system in a galaxy of billions of stars, in a universe of billions of galaxies.

 

^^^This...goddamn asians and their shark fin soup.

 

the ocean is moving.the ocean has moods.the ocean has personality.the ocean communicates.the ocean surprises.the ocean is powerful.the ocean is calm,placid,mellow,playful,fun.the ocean is pumping,wedging,gnarly,dangerous,violent.the ocean is ugly.the ocean is rough.the ocean is smooth.the ocean is beautiful.the ocean is changing.the ocean remains consistent.the ocean seems alive.

 

this sounds suspiciously like hippy crap to me.......

 

that's because you are a college dumbass (see avatar for reference)

 

lol. all my buddies call me Foreman because I am always saying what a dumbass my son is.

 

Totally agree. I only eat local seafood and fish. Our local fisherman are all part of small locally owned businesses, and almost all of them realize that the ocean is their livelihood. They also understand when it is safe to fish specific animals based on rain runoff, pollution, reproduction cycles, and migration.

 

Hey Trevolution, do you give out parking tickets all baked and shoot? When is A&E doing a Wrightsville beach version of PARKING WARS?

I give you credit Trevolution. You try on here. Since my return it's like everyone has been sedated on here. Yeah, yeah it was usually nothing but five word posts from dudes who take this stuff way too seriously, but there's some cool people on here. They should know who they are. But there's also a lot of delusional types who think they are "proper" and think they know what they are talking aboot. People report each other on here. A SURFING WEBSITE !! They tattletale if they don't like someone's content because THEY don't agree with it or it's not up to their "standards." That's crazy and pathetic. Sissies.

But Trevolution, you got substance to you. As for being college-aged, yeah so what dudes? He's more philosophical than most others. I guess, Trevolution, that there's alot of older, jelaous dudes out there who probably don't surf too well and they get upset. It sucks getting old, Trevolution. Try not to. Ha............

Hey Trevolution, let me ax you, when should I stop wearing my 5 mil up here in Nueve Yersey? How aboot the gloves? Man, I don't mean to lay this heavy stuff on you but I'm muy confused.