Our Reckoning / Clearly Sargassum / MIA
“The Everglades would never be the lush unbroken river it once was; the shallows of Florida Bay would never be as pure and sparkling with fish; the bleached dying reefs of the Keys would never bloom fully back to life. Being overrun and exploited was the historical fate of places, so rare and beautiful. All the treasured wilderness that had been sacrificed at the altar of growth was gone for all time. More disappeared every day; nothing ever changed except the speed of destruction and only because there were fewer pristine pieces to sell off, carve up and pave”. - Carl Hiaasen, Squeeze Me, C 2020
Is the above not all true? Can anyone formulate an argument to the contrary? It’s not getting better. If you’ve read my Chronicles through the years, you know that my outlook has gone from optimistic to realistic to pessimistic. Yes, I have investments and a 401(k) and own my house, but I rarely think about my monetary bottom line. Thankfully $$ Bob takes care of those details. What good is it if we no longer have a place on this earth to enjoy it? I just focus on making new scuba divers and showing everyone what the world beneath the surface of the ocean is like. It’s my call of duty. I’m preparing myself to ride off into the sunset and enjoy what’s left of our planet's natural beauty the best I can. I will regret leaving my children on such a troubled orb and fully understand why they don’t want to have kids.
It's a shame that in this go around of 'evolution on earth' we placed wealth, power, and popularity above compassion, caring, and kindness. Hopefully, we get it right next time. Regardless of human priorities, there is a higher authority that requests we care for one another as brothers and sisters living in peace for the good of all and earth's ability to sustain us in our heart and being. Seems like we failed the requirement this time. Evolution will likely give us another chance in its hopefully infinite timeline, but this attempt is quickly approaching failure. May love of nature and our fellow occupants overcome our hearts and lead the way to peace on earth the next chance we get… All Rise.
The Sargaasum Sea is an area in the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by three major currents that produces the bulby seaweed that floats. I need to do a deeper dive into how and why that area produces and distributes the seaweed. It can form massive thick weed lines which wreaks havoc on beaches if the wind and currents push it ashore. It is also a tremendous habitat for juvenile ocean bound marine life. I do know this about sargassum seaweed: the more of it we see offshore locally, the clearer our water is. There has been more sargassum out here the last couple of months than I've ever seen and our visibility has been as good as I’ve experienced in my 40 years of diving locally. Southwest Florida has gone from a severe drought to standing water everywhere in a matter of weeks. Water clarity is hanging in there for now but don’t procrastinate if you’re thinking about a local dive!
We are still seeing a good amount of marine life on our local dives, but the red tide this winter certainly has decreased many of our fish stocks. Over the last several years of diving off the Psychquatic, John and I have assimilated a list of critters that were decimated by the horrendous red tide of 2017. We can talk about that list in more detail this Thursday. One species that used to be common that we haven’t seen at all in the past eight years is the Florida Regal Sea Goddess. That is a crying shame because the purple Nudibranch with yellow striping is absolutely gorgeous! Hopefully they’re surviving and thriving elsewhere but as you already know, I’m not optimistic.
Maybe my problem is I haven’t had a good adrenaline rush in a very long time. Maybe fighting a huge fish on the end of my line would do the trick. Especially if it leaps high out of the water, frantically swinging its head and tail back-and-forth. Maybe it even has a bill attached to its front. Ah yes, that’s what I need… A Big Beautiful Bill-fish!
Enjoy while we can… Live Love Dive —Jeff
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