“I am Ocean”

The fact that terrestrial vertebrates, including me, descended from an early marine fish some 375 million years ago is too far fetched for me to say I am ocean.

Nevertheless, for me this statement holds some scientific and some emotional truths.

What I mean is marine identity and it comes from my deep emotional ocean connection combined with a reasonable understanding of ocean science.

The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes:

I am ocean…

• when the sight of the sea from afar makes me smile in anticipation
• because half of the oxygen I breathe is produced by single cell marine algae
• when experiencing a sense of wonder, calm and grounding while I’m in or on the sea
• because the weather I experience is shaped by the ocean’s role in climate regulation
• as I listen to pebbles rolling in the surf
• because for my benefit goods are crossing the ocean every day
• when I share my passion for ocean protection and conservation
• because I am around 60 percent water
• with the flow of the tide
• because the ocean absorbs 30 percent of my carbon emissions (and yours)
• while I lose myself in the ‘here and now’ of exploring the world beneath the waves
• because the thermohaline circulation distributes the nutrients necessary for the marine ecosystem to thrive and the marine biogeochemical cycles to work
• as its power shaped the smooth, dark, hot stones that warm my muscles during Lucy’s healing massages
• in solidarity with communities that rely on artisan fishing as important food source
• when I’m singing shanties with my shipmates on ‘Planet Pelican’ of London
• because the ocean drives the global water cycle and to a large extent irrigates the terrestrial ecosystems I enjoy and the crops that feed me
• because happiness is the ocean breeze in the sails, encounters with marine wildlife,  sailing under the stars and feeling the ocean within.

[Inspired by a humpback whale called Karlyah and all her cetacean cousins, cold and balmy swims, my first wandering albatross, sunsets at sea, snorkeling coral reefs and kelp forests, Mollymawk the fulmar, the low sun glinting through the breaking waves on the morning after a windy night, the deep clear waters of east Greenland’s fjords, rocky shore rambles, the knowledge picked up along the way at the University of Plymouth and for the Pelican of London ocean science programme, and collaborating with the Ocean Conservation Trust, Plymouth Sound National Marine Park and the Shark Trust UK, citizen science with Orca, Happywhale, the Seawatch Foundation, BTO, Marine Conservation Society, NASA Globe Observer Cloud, the outreach resources and science publications of more research institutes and scientists than I can name (the NOC and Ocean Rising deserve a special mentioning), the passion and ethos of Pelican crew, and at the start of it all, David who took me sailing under the Milky Way.]