The Sea Around Us

I had heard the name Rachel Carson used before, but I had never taken the time to understand who she was. When I started reading "Courage for the Earth", the essays that were in the book helped me to realize what it was that Rachel Carson stood for and how her legacy remains today.

When I first opened "The Sea Around Us" I was afraid that it would be like any other required reading for a class and I would not enjoy it, but I was mistaken. The way that Rachel Carson wrote about the environment with such passion helped me to really enjoy every page.

I especially loved reading the chapters about the ocean and how it works. My family and I spend the summers at the beach, there is no other place in the world I would rather be. Reading about the ocean with both the beauty and the strength that Carson writes of it with captured my attention. I've always known what the ocean has meant to me, but reading about what it means for our planet and all of our lives was so interesting to me.

As a math major, I had never thought about all of these environmental problems in our world today, and didn't think that there was much that I could do to fix them. After reading more about things that I love and learning more about how I can help out, I know that I will try to spread the knowledge that I have acquired from Rachel Carson with others.

Learning from the Alternative Fall Break

I was unable to attend the alternative fall break trip that the other half of my class went on. I was not surprised when they came back to hear stories about fun experiences and new friendships that were made. Classmates were willing to tell all about their adventures and what they had learned. Hearing about all of the different environments that the students had seen helped me get into this green initiative myself more.

I enjoyed learning about environmental problems from my classmates who were able to see some of these conditions firsthand. While I was not there to experience it, hearing these stories made it a lot more real for myself. When I was able to hear some of Rachel Carson's works applied to things that were being seen my other students, it made it a lot more easy for me to understand what we were working for.

Going Green

I've always heard people talk about "going green" and how it is so important to protect our environment, but I've never understood all of that until now. After reading Rachel Carson's thoughts in "The Sea Around Us", it is now clear to me how much of the world around us is changing and the effect that it is having on us. Realizing this made me more interested in taking action to help build awareness in this environmental cause.

They always say that taking action can begin in your own backyard, but it is always so difficult to find where to begin. I was very happy to be able to take part in researching new ways in which Shippensburg University can help in the cause of "going green." With plans being made for new residence halls, this was the perfect opportunity for the University to help out in this environmental cause. It was also the perfect opportunity for some of my classmates and I to help out in this cause by do some researching that the University could use to help their decisions.

We were able to look at many different aspects of the new residence halls in order to create a proposal of how these new residence halls could be designed. We even looked at things that students could be doing now to help out. We sent out surveys of what students were looking for in their residence halls and took them all into account, while still keeping this "going green" idea in our heads. It worked out quite nicely and everyone came up with some really good ideas! I'm really looking forward to presenting our ideas to the University to see what they think!

Through the Lens

Before the trip even began, I shared the same apprehension as a few of my peers about what we would be doing, where we would be going, and how serious our professors were about bringing shoes we would throw out from the muck.  Yet at the same time, I knew this was going to be a unique experience, and I brought my camera along as a second set of eyes to record the adventure. There were a few close calls in the marshes and kayaking where it almost seemed like a bad idea to bring technology, but in the end no harm was done.  Since the adventure has been fairly well documented by others, I won't reiterate the details, but rather the changes I observed through the footage I viewed afterwards.

We began our quest to Wallops Island as a group of strangers.  Most of us had friends or classmates we knew going, but as a group, we were new faces to each other.  Some were excited to go, others curious about what lay ahead, and some, like myself, who were questioning whether this was truly a better alternative to sleeping in and earning some cash. After all, it was the first true break since the year began, and we wouldn't see another rest from our studies until Thanksgiving! Yet nobody backed out, and we all loaded the vans.

As we traveled to the Baltimore Aquarium and then down to Wallops Island for the night, people gradually got into the attitude of the trip and began to enjoy themselves. We arrived rather late, so the only glimpse we got of the Marine Science Consortium was what the flickering parking lot light would reveal to us before we rested.

Saturday was an experience everyone had to enjoy, myself included.  That morning the group I was with set up a Rachel Carson display board to answer questions about her life and legacy. We also had the opportunity to take a hay ride, where we came across a hog-nosed snake. Harmless in nature, for those who don't know, this snake when frightened will flip over on its back. If it is still scared, it will vomit (having a rather strong aversion to snakes, I could sympathize). Later that afternoon we were greeted with fair weather as my group kayaked and got the chance to catch fish with a net. We caught a shrimp. Yes, one shrimp.

Sunday is when everything changed. We were up early, and the looks on our faces were not exactly blissful when we one-by-one remembered this beautiful morning included a laborious trudge through waist-deep mud. Once we arrived and started our hunt for trash, that feeling was intensified by the fact that there was little to be found in the shallow regions by the parking lot.  Deeper we journeyed, slowly submerging ourselves in something we could only categorize as 'natural,' and the plants rose higher and higher the closer to water we came (I am not a tall man by any means, and at one point I remember disappearing from view and wondering if I'd be found).

Then... the nets.

Resting on a sandy bank was a mountain of the stuff, used in clam beds further offshore. Glancing back at the murky depths from whence we had come, it was sprawling out on both sides, seemingly endless.  As if a light switch had been flipped, people sprang into action.  Hands soared out to grab any netting they could reach, and there was plenty to reach, indeed.  The larger the pile of nets got, the less tedious it seemed to be, and in fact people were having fun, laughing, and in some cases intentionally mucking themselves or each other while gathering the garbage.  There we were, covered in marshland hauling loads of netting and other garbage larger than ourselves, out of a landscape none of us prior to the start of the year could have expected to be in. 

Our friends back home were sleeping in their beds while we dove through the dirt trying to find the next piece of garbage, and suddenly we became the lucky ones. Joking and laughing in an environment with its own identity; a raw exposure to life in its most natural state. We respected the marsh, and we removed that which others left behind, and enjoyed it in a way I could not imagine before entering.  We live in a rural area rich in nature, yet there we interacted with the earth in a way I could only compare to that feeling when one is finger painting and no longer cares about getting their hands dirty.

I felt good about making a positive impact by cleaning the marsh that day. But the marsh had its impact on me as well. People travel from home to car to class or work and back again, moving from one box to another, and maybe we forget sometimes that it's places like the marsh that we come from, that we are family to. Even now, while I write this blog, I am drinking the water that man did not create, that has traveled farther than any one person could in their life,  just to end up in my glass. And it will continue to travel long after I am gone, forever binding man to the sea. Rachel Carson knew. And now we know. 

The rest of the trip (to the oyster vessels and the farm in Pennsylvania) solidified that connection. The apprehensive faces seen in the beginning were changed. Expressions of respect, comfort, smiles, and even guilt for previously disregarding something so directly intrinsic to our existence took their place. Most of all, it was fun. We got muddy as promised, found more trash than we thought possible, and came back as friends. We bonded with one other and the earth in a way no classroom could mimic. Some, before the trip, were looking for an excuse not to go; now we are all looking for an excuse to go back.

Reflection

Looking back on our trip to Wallops Island I could honestly say I was not looking forward to going on the trip. Our trip was over fall break at Shippensburg University. Over break I was planing on working a little, and most of all relaxing. The trip had very little of that, but it realy wasn't in a bad way. We left Friday afternoon for Wallops Island Marine Science Consortium Research Center. Along the way we took a detour to Baltimore's inner harbor where we took a tour of the Baltimore Aquarium. This was the first time I had ever been to the aquarium. The stop was to help us "connect" with nature before we got to the research center. It was fascinating. The exhibits were amazing and any type of animals species you could think of. The only down fall was the time we had at the aquarium, because of budget constraints.
Once we arrived at Wallops Island the work began. We had numerous activities and service projects that we did through out the next four days. Monday morning we kayaked in the Chesapeake Bay and explored the beach. In the afternoon we volunteered at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and clean a 140 year old lighthouse in preparation for its anniversary the next day.
On Sunday we went to Tom's Cove located at the end of Chincoteague Island. We all got ankle deep in mud for two hours and clean a marsh that serves a a buffer zone for the ocean and the mainland. During the clean up we found hundreds of oyster netting that broke away from privately owned oyster beds and washed ashore. The netting as a serious impact on the animals that life in that marsh area, and it was amazing how much netting we cleaned up.
On Monday morning we went to Smith Island and explored the culture and they way they people on the island live which is unique from any other society that i have seen in the modern United States. I have posted and elaborated earlier on this day in a previous post.
On our return trip home we wanted to bring what we learned and are experience full circle. We Stopped at a farm in St. Thomas PA where we were given a tour of the farm and a lecture on best management practices.

A relaxing breeze sweeps
Across the calm flat surface
of the sea
reflected deep azure,
the waves start to roll and tumble
in the sea
crash, crash, crash
waves smash on high rocky cliffs
beside the sea
the sky darkens
huge, fluffy grey candyfloss gathers
above the sea
wind roars, thunder cracks
water crashes down like waterfall
sat the sea
schools of small fish panic, fear grips
they're being tossed around
through the sea
and eternity passes, clouds part
the sun shines down, heavens rays
onto the sea
tranquility is restored
gulls squawk happily
near the sea
Rhythmic pattern of tides
a vast expanse of blue water, remember
the sea.

This is a poem was written by a friend of mine. It reminds me of the circle of life with in nature. As always there is the calm of life, then there is the destruction of nature. Its wild, free, and untamable. Nature takes its course and come full circle again to a calm and beautiful setting.

Beach Research Day

On Saturday October 6th, 2007 7 am came early. For the first time in as long as I can remember i have not been up that early on a Saturday. That morning I woke up know I was going to go kayaking. I have never been kayaking before in my life and I wasn't looking forward to it. My classmates ans I left the Marine and Science Consortium Research Center on Wallops Island on a journey to the unknown. We traveled by shuttle vans to a park and boat ramp located on Assateague Point. We left Assateague Point and kayaked down the Chesapeake Bay, approximately two miles to a beach on Chincoteague Island. At the beach we pulled our boats ashore and began to explore the beach. We were at the beach for about two hours, and walked around searching for and wildlife that we could. On this exploration we found several species of wildlife. Some people dug in the sand for crabs and other attempted to catch fish in the ocean with nets. Along the way we collected various types of species of animals and kept them to run research on. On of the most fascinating things I ever saw was a Bald Eagle that perched its self on a branch right in front of us. I never seen a Bald Eagle before in the wild, let alone 35 yards away. The Bald Eagle sat perfectly perched on the tree branch. Several of the other students took pictures of it, and i was lucky enough to look at it through binoculars. Once we were done looking and taking pictures of the Bald Eagle it flew away. I thought it was so interesting that the eagle sat on the branch for the entire time that we wanted to look at it, and as soon as we were done if flew away...... It capped of a great morning and it was one of the most amazing experiences I ever witnessed with nature.