Living on Vancouver island, on the coast of British Columbia, we’re surrounded by ocean, and in our case, by the Salish Sea. On a day to day basis, its normal to just look at and think locally, relating to the names of the straits, the inlets, and the bays around us and the marine life that lives there. There are local orcas and seals, herons and seagulls, salmon and cod, crabs and prawns, starfish and mussels. And marine plant life such as kelp, sea grass, sargassum and phytoplankton.
But then my thoughts turn to the whole coastline of North America, from BC through Washington state, Oregon and California to the tip of the Mexican Baja peninsula, that continuous shoreline side that parallels the Pacific. I visulize the journey of the gray whales that swim from Alaska to Magdalena Bay in Baja to birth their calves, out to Hawaii and back to Alaska and then begin all over again.
When down in Baja, the Sea of Cortez beckons with its diverse sealife so different from up north. Parrot fish and sharks and a a variety of whale species. Dolphins, manta rays and sea turtles. And incredible reefs with schools and schools of fish. So much diversity, still, at this moment, available for us to marvel at.
My mind wanders further afield and I remind myself that the the Salish Sea and the Sea of Cortez, in fact, the whole enormous Pacific ocean are not isolated. They don’t have boundaries and borders. They’re all connected, the Pacific flows into the Atlantic which flows into the Arctic and Southern oceans which combine with the Indian ocean and comes full circle to the Pacific.
Its easy to forget that the oceans flow and mix together. What we do in our local inlet, affects the whole, no different from the air that we breathe. We may think we own a particular body of water but realistically we share that water with a majority of the world. The way we respect and treat our local waterways affects our neighboring countries and vice versa. Much of our human waste and toxins and detritus all find their way to the oceans eventually and through the flow of the ocean currents, back to us.
We're fortunate to have dedicated organizations and groups working towards saving our oceans and waterways. Two of these are Seadoc Society in the Pacific northwest working towards the health of marine life through science and education.and Seawatch in the southern Baja, dedicated to a healthy Sea of Cortez.
I need to remember that the Salish Sea which surrounds me, is part of a greater entity and deserves my respect and my help. The marine life that calls it home, deserves healthy surroundings. And future generations deserve to stand on its shores, or on the shores of the Sea of Cortez or the Pacific, or wherever their body of water is, stand in awe and wonder at the beauty and diversity that we have been given to preserve and protect.