Ocean voices puts on first in Alaska
• Demonstration sends a message to leaders that global warming puts us all in hot water
By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
Photo provided - It took more than 100 boats, including 30 kayakers, to help form “S.O.S” on the topic of ocean acidification. The Sunday demonstration sends a message to national leaders to help support legislation that leads to lowering greenhouse emissions.
“It was kinda weird,” said Media Coordinator Celia Alario. “Our video guys overhead said the sky looked like one great big powdered doughnut.”
Then, at apparently just the right time, a hole opened, and photographers snapped away.
“When you look at the video, there was almost this parting of the clouds where the sky just opened up right over the boats,” Alario said. “It was pretty incredible.”
Images of the event – the first of its kind in Alaska – have already traveled around the world, something organizers said they were counting on to raise awareness and bring attention to the issue.
Larger boats were strung together with ropes and buoys to spell out the large “S.O.S” on the water, while kayakers assembled to form the words “Acid Ocean” in the middle.
“The kayakers were really the unsung heroes of the whole thing,” Alario said. “They were combatting those waves for hours. I looked at the video and thought, ‘oh how cute, the kayakers are waving their paddles.’ Then, I saw they were actually paddling their fannies off.”
Following the event, speakers and participants called on state, national, and international leaders to protect the ocean from the acidifying, oxygen-depleting, and climate-altering impacts of uncontrolled fossil fuel emissions.
“This is the only real solution to ocean acidification and the time to act is right now,” said Alan Parks, a family fisherman from Homer. “Alaska’s senators know that ocean acidification is a looming danger to our fisheries. This message from fishermen is to support our leaders in taking the necessary action now to reduce carbon emissions.”
Alario agreed, adding that organizers were really excited by the turnout and all the people who got involved.
“We’re just hoping this is a enough of a call-out to get people’s attention to what we’re doing to the world,” Alario said.
Scientists say as more CO2 is absorbed in the ocean, the water becomes more acidic. This makes it more difficult for shellfish to grow healthy shells, and could in turn reduce populations of fish that depend on them for food, like salmon. About half the seafood produced in the U.S. comes from Alaskan waters, and more than 50,000 people make a living from the state’s fisheries.
Parks said when he put out the announcement about the event, his phone rang off the hook from people wanting to participate. He knew, in taking five hours to form the letters while boats would be sitting out on the water, it would be no easy trick. But Homer people turned out for this first – this is the first time in Alaska such a feat had ever been tried with boats.
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Posted by Newsroom on Sep 9th, 2009 and filed under Headline News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Posted by Newsroom on Sep 9th, 2009 and filed under Headline News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
8 Responses for “Ocean voices puts on first in Alaska”
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It does make you wonder…..How much diesel and 2-stroke oil they burned through to stage this.
several homer fishermen come to sitka to fish herring in the spring time. Maybe you should stop them because they will create lots of carbon to get here. Oh wait everybody else is supposed to quit doing what we do but not homer environazis.
GREAT! only heard of this because of a google alert with SOS in terms…but the connection: our coaliton, very determined and active in demanding real action on climate change, but actually opposing the US climate legisllation now on the board (American Clean E and Security Act – going to Senate) because it is WORSE THAN NOTHING> we need something much stronger! And FAST!
We are climate SOS. Can we find out how to get permission to use this photo for our website??
You need only to contact John Quigly who put this all together and then made it PUBLIC DOMAIN……. he is the man….. this was NOT FOR PROFIT in any way….
http://www.spectralq@aol.com
Yah, we burned some gas, but the reality of us all coming together and even the FOG participated…. and kayakers and fisherman and bicyclists and dogs, and business people in this little town.. we all came together to share our voice!
Mike Svenson, do you know anything about what they are trying to promote? Ocean acidification deals with the carbon dioxide the ocean absorbs and how we are continuously hurting our oceans. NOT with overfishing, as you naively assumed. So maybe before you want to be snide, uneducated, jerk again, you should do a little bit of research. And Shawn, yes, they emitted some carbon dioxide while doing this, but look at the media attention brought forth by it; which I am sure is what their goal was…
Victoria, I humbly submit that Mike Svenson was not actually speaking of overfishing as you so elegantly accused him of, but that the fuel used to chug out to Sitka was contributing to the CO2, and might be better spent by fishing locally. I must agree though, that to use boats that burn any type of fossil fuels, and even worse, two stroke motors, really shows just how hypocritical the “greenies” really are, using the very evil liquid they despise to do their bidding. But hey, what else is new. Environmentalist is the key word for hypocrite.