Write Today!!

Write Today!!

This fabulous photo by my friend JR Sosky makes me want to jump right in to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

It's the 25th anniversary of our Marine Sanctuary, designated and protected in 1992.  I love it that NOAA calls these large protected ocean waters "Sanctuaries."    Obviously they know their Bible and have studied Leviticus: "You shall keep my sabbaths and revere my sanctuaries.  I am the Lord."

But this lovely bay scene, and those revered Sanctuaries, might become a thing of the past if our Department of Energy has its way: they want to do away with current regulations that outlaw offshore oil and gas drilling in these waters (and the 15 other National Marine Sanctuaries) and they want to rescind new Sanctuary protections from the past ten years.  That would include the amazing Davidson Seamount in our Sanctuary, a huge underwater volcano off the Big Sur Coast that we added to protected waters in 2009.  The three other California Marine Sanctuaries were also expanded in the past 10 years. 

Will they still be revered?

We all have a chance to comment on these proposed changes in ocean protection, but only until this coming Monday, August 14.  (It doesn’t matter where you live – these are “National” Marine Sanctuaries.)

Here’s how:

-National Marine Sanctuary Foundation: https://www.marinesanctuary.org/take-action/advocate/standupformarinesanctuaries/ has a good letter with background info that you can simply sign and your support will become part of the public comment. 

-Monterey Bay Aquarium: <<https://futureoftheocean.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/action-alert-help-protect-our-national-marine-sanctuaries/>> has helpful talking points and a link to comments.

-Or you can submit your own comment directly at <<https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=NOAA-NOS-2017-0066-0001>>

Personal testimonies are the most effective.  In my comment I wrote that from my personal experience as an ocean volunteer I knew that over 2 million people visit Monterey every year to see a clean safe ocean.  That tourism is Monterey County’s second highest economy, after agriculture.  That the California economy is thriving on alternative energy, not more fossil fuels.  That as Chair of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council I had seen the wide community support and extensive process that had led to designation and expansion.  And that as a person of faith I believe God calls us to be good stewards of all of creation. 

That I revere this Sanctuary.  I hope you do too.

“That you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast.” (Isaiah 66)

“That you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast.” (Isaiah 66)

Who is the happier harbor seal in this picture – post-partum mom or nursing pup? 

Mom is surely relieved to have birthed the 25 lb. newborn. 

But little pup is pretty blissed out too.  Enjoy that yummy milk your Mom’s giving you; it’s got the highest fat content of any mammal, 45%.  You only get one month for that fatty feast, little one, and then you’re on your own.   So drink up.

I saw this scene over and over this past April at Point Lobos State Reserve.  Scores of moms and new pups, beach maternity wards. (Dad’s work was done 9 months ago.) 

Seals spend half their time on land, hauling out to give birth, as well as to regulate their temperature, molt, and find safety in numbers.  But they are skittish, and will scatter quickly at human noise or presence, using up precious energy. 

Moms sometimes even leave the pups alone, in caution or simply to feed. But the pups lack “protective wariness” about humans, or dogs.  From stress, infection, premature birth, malnourishment and predation, half will die in the first year.

So we watched from a safe distance, atop granite and cypress cliffs.  We knew we didn’t want to go to jail for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act.  But even with posted signs warning us to stay away and to be quiet, it was hard not to ooh and aah.  We tried to follow Billy Joel’s wise words: “Leave a tender moment alone.”

I got home and looked up “God as nursing mother” in my Bible concordance.  Several choices.  Here’s my favorite, from Isaiah 66:

“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.” For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”  Isaiah 66

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(Come to Pacific Grove and enjoy our Blue Theology retreats for youth and adults.  Bluetheology.com.  You’ll see harbor seals every day, at Point Lobos, or a couple blocks from the church, and babies every April. I post these “Blue Theology Tide-ings” every Wednesday here and on Facebook.)

Look at All the Ships

Look at All the Ships

When Captain Kate Spencer, marine mammal spotter/teacher/advocate extraordinaire and Blue Theology partner, posted this screen shot from marinetraffic.com this week, she framed it this way:

“Have you ever thought about how many ships are moving right now? Moving our stuff: oil, grain, cars, toys, clothes, raw materials, livestock, deadstock, all the stuff that moves? Here's a screenshot just now. Go to this site (marinetraffic.com) and you can roll-over any of the ships and see what kind it is, and the names and details of some of them, where they're going, where they've been, where they're from. The pale orange arrows are fishing (look between Australia and Africa). The green ones are cargo (look at Singapore and Korea). The red ones are tankers (find the Arabian Gulf). Amazing. Incredible. The volume. The noise. The whales impaled. The pollution. The human beings at sea and away from families for most months of most years of their lives. The stuff we need. The stuff we don't need. Look. Keep looking.”

Captain Kate spends most days on Monterey Bay as one of two captains on Fastraft, a six-person, low, stable, quiet, rigid inflatable whale-watching boat.  (Most highly recommended.  Fastraft.com)  She knows her marine science and her marine vessels.   

She got lots of interesting reactions and comments on this post: “Cool!”  “Too much!”  “I use this website to identify ships going by.”  “The number of ships will only increase with globalization.” 

One person wrote, “Kate Spencer – what products delivered by ships are you going to give up first?” 

She responded, in part, “That is a good question, which I will answer, though it also hints of an accusation. Our industrial complex is so heavily built that it is nearly impossible to live outside it, whether or not we like it, just as it is nearly impossible not to use cars. That does not make it off-limits to question a system we inherited, to critique it, and to work to change it. The fact that we did not make it perhaps makes it even more important that we question what we have inherited, lest we unwittingly benefit from the suffering of other humans and other beings simply because those before us were okay with causing suffering.

“My answer is wide-ranging. I have bicycled rather than driven a car most of my adult life, and have never purchased a new car. I shop used whenever possible. When I started reading the labels on foods more carefully, I started choosing those made in the US rather than imported.

“Of course I also use many imported things. It would be nearly impossible not to. I try to use plastic as little as possible and fish uncounted numbers of other people's discarded plastic balloons and bags out of the ocean. Hopefully that offsets some of what I do use.

“Am I perfect? Of course not. But I pay attention, I bear witness, and ask others to pay attention too.”

I said Captain Kate knows her marine science and marine vessels.  Her answer above tells me she knows her Blue Theology as well. (She sometimes gets free from the boat to be a naturalist for our Aquarium visits.)  Her style is what we try to do with youth and adults who come to our Monterey Bay church programs to learn more about ocean stewardship and ocean spirituality.  We say: Learn, think, feel, act, all on behalf of the ocean and all that lives in it.  Consider your actions and choices.  Bravely address difficult questions.  Progress not perfection.

Or as Kate puts it:  Look at the map, learn, pray for those folks who live and work on those ships, advocate for the vulnerable, like marine mammals navigating the same seas, consider how this information might inform your life style choices, and follow the call to care for all creation.  Pay attention, bear witness, keep looking.

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Bluetheology.com for adult pilgrimages and youth service trips by the sea.  I post these “Tide-ings” every Wednesday here and on Facebook.