The Oceans Need Our Help

I went on the great summer road trip this year, logging over 6000 kilometers in the good old Jeep Liberty to get to the gulf coast of Florida. I remembered my visit to Sarasota beach some 40 years ago. Goggles on my head, diving in the surf and fetching many-armed starfish on Lido Beach. Sunburned beyond what would be acceptable today, I had a fantastic time in the Gulf of Mexico.

So when it came to the best beach to visit this year, well, Sarasota was the place. Little did I know. The red tide had come in. You see the red tide has come in since 1840. It seems a little exacerbated by humans lately. It was a hot and humid day when we got to the beachside hotel, but the smell was memorable. Fishy, dank and pongy. We asked about the beach. While the hostess was optimistic, the maintenance guy behind her just looked down and shook his head. We would not enter the water here. Just standing on the balcony caused us to cough, our eyes watered and our noses ran. This wasn't just the water.

So while it's cool to see a cowfish, a horseshoe crab, a puffer fish and others. It's not cool that they are dead on the sand. We drove over an hour to be able to go in the water and play in the waves. That's not right. It's sad.

I have the priviledge to be part of Canada's supercluster initiative for Oceans. I really hope that there are projects to help support healthy oceans so that our grandchildren can enjoy the waves and don their goggles to see the horseshoe crabs under the water, instead of on the shore.