Surfrider Foundation, MAKING WAVES, June 2004

MAKING WAVES, June 2004 issue: Table of Contents

The Last Link

For this edition of Making Waves, I was asked by a friend of mine to start with a warm animal story involving the ocean and surfing. I knew what he was driving at; a demonstration of the ecological links that are so vital to understand in order to protect our oceans, waves and beaches. But I’d like to approach those connections from another direction. Instead, I’ll just ask you to imagine any one of a dozen or more stories I hope you have in your own storehouse of memory, so I can use this space to demonstrate one of the last ecological links, the link of nature to our souls.

stormy beach

The animal tale so many surfers and beach lovers relate where I live is the sight of dolphins in the surf zone. You probably have that story in mind right now, or, depending on the latitude where you exist, perhaps a story involving an equally “charismatic mega fauna” as my scientist friends like to light-heartedly say. Whether your story involves mammal or fish, you had probably come to the coast for solitude. At that moment you initially glimpsed the hopefully peaceful “intruder,” for most of us, there was a deep and immediate resonance. I would suggest that feeling is pure soul.

In Thomas Moore’s book, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, within a chapter entitled Ecology’s Home, Moore says it better than I have ever heard it. “Knowing the geology (or other science) of a region has not inhibited us from overdeveloping or destroying places of natural holiness…” Why is this true? Has science failed us? Have we failed science?

Moore suggests that one of the reasons we are in such a failed place is that we have been ignoring our profound needs for nature or home. I would submit that we don’t “hear” science because living in such a strangely distracted and disconnected world, missing science’s message is par for the course. We miss a lot. Says Moore, “…at root, ecology is an erotic attitude of closeness, relatedness, and care. We have made it into a rational/activist project and lost sight of its heart. When eros and logos (heart and head) are lived deeply enough, they are so close to each other as to be barely distinguishable.”

At the Surfrider Foundation, our work before the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and before the Pew Commission has concentrated on emphasizing several linkages we see. Sediment transport to the shore affects surf and near- shore biology, trophic or animal links can relate to the ecology of the coast, and water-quality links relate directly to all life from the summit to the sea. Surfers, divers and paddlers, like most lovers of the beach, want to interact with a wild and healthy ocean.

It’s healthy when in the northwest, for instance, thriving populations of forage fish like surf smelt and sand lance are eaten by larger fish like salmon, which in turn are consumed by even larger species like Orca whales. Where I live, grunion use the beach for spawning. All over this planet, the beach “wants” to be alive. At the end of the chain, at the last link, in an often unrecognized and brutally disregarded location, sits humankind whose souls, in my view, end up needing all of that nature in order to survive in any semblance of health.

So in the end we need not look for a warm animal story to demonstrate the delicate ecological links that we need. We need look no further than our own kind for a story. We feed our own souls with clean healthy waves and nature; it’s the last link. It’s a link back to the rest of the chain that can give us the energy for stewardship. It’s up to us. As I often ask, would you please use the form at the inside of this newsletter to commit a solitary and critical act of stewardship by signing up a friend or loved one with the Surfrider Foundation? It will make a difference.

For the oceans, waves and beaches,

Christopher J. Evans, Esq.,
Executive Director

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