I want to give the proceeds of the “Jaws” Anniversary reading to SharkSavers because I really dig their Finished with FINS campaign. I like that they strike right at the heart of the market for shark fins by expanding their outreach and activism to Hong Kong and Singapore.
This morning I contacted SharkSavers about partnering up for my February “Jaws” benefit and threw in a $25 donation toward funding shark sanctuaries.
Just sent an old fashioned snail mail letter to California Congressman Jared Huffman for fighting to keep state shark protection laws strong. You can read about Huffman’s work here.
My first thought when I saw the sea floor off La Jolla is how much it resembled the rocks, sand and waving grasses in the opening of “Jaws.” I half expected to see title credits materializing in the water. But I didn’t feel afraid. I loved the otherworldly silence, the muted sense of the undersea world, the endlessly waving kelp and eelgrass, that newfound awareness of my own breathing.
I’d come to La Jolla to see the annual gathering of leopard sharks. Altogether I encountered about 20 of them–lovely, shy and graceful creatures. At one point I feel like I interrupted some sort of shark conference—about six leopard sharks hovered together in the water, but when I came almost close enough to touch them, they suddenly split apart disappearing into the silt.
Sometimes it’s nice to be new at something—to have that Zen beginner’s mind “full of possibilities.” What to a seasoned diver would be a roster of common fish, to me were utterly exotic creatures. I saw at least a dozen Guitar fish, a couple Bat rays, Rockfish, Garibaldi, Sheephead, Perch and Sand bass.
I loved the canyons and the rocks, getting swept up in the magnetic push of the tides, sometimes bumping into my patient friend Renee who gladly volunteered to drive to San Diego and even loaned me some extra fins and a diving hood.
At certain particularly silent moments, the name Robert Pamperin would pop into my head, but thoughts of doom were as fleeting as the nameless silver fish darting at the surface. I admit “action-wise” that I only came back from this trip with 5 new signatures, but I also returned with a kind of slack-jawed-born again-awe for the ocean and its creatures. I can’t wait to go back.
Today’s action is small. Humble. Barely anything.
But it gave me such a weird sense of satisfaction.
I attached a SAVE THE SHARKS license plate holder to my car. The end.
Since I live in Los Angeles, I drive A LOT. Out of all of the many cars stuck behind me in some interminable traffic jam, I wonder if one or two or maybe even three people might see my license plate frame and meditate on it. Although we all get compassion fatigue, SAVE THE SHARKS is certainly better than staring at some inane vanity plate that reads CAST ME or PMS 247.
Maybe one of these random motorists will go home and read up on sharks and see how dire things are and sign a petition or send a check to a shark charity or have a complete life-altering epiphany, and ditch their suffocating job and join the crew of Sea Shepherd and defend the seas from a-holes.
I know it’s probably unlikely, but it’s not completely impossible either.
I guess that’s the whole point of taking little actions every day.
Today I started refining the central idea of this shark project.
I also studied my diving manual.
As I memorized facts about water pressure, I realized that my fear of encountering sharks in the water had been eclipsed by a terror of my lungs collapsing like a pair of dispirited accordions as fountains of shiny blood burst from my ears.
Then I realized the whole book I am writing is about fear. Beyond the fear of sharks, beyond drowning, beyond fear of my lack of athleticism or lung capacity, is the fear I feel that this book won’t sell or that while I am still grieving my father’s death, my mother, who is in frail health, will die and leave me incapacitated with grief, unable to continue.
When descending into the depths, the diver learns techniques to “equalize” the pressure of the sea, to survive in an alien place. It’s a powerful metaphor for our own daily descents, our singular journeys into the unknown. I thought of these lines from Adrienne Rich’s famous poem “Diving into the Wreck”:
the sea is another story
the sea is not a question of power
I have to learn alone to turn my body without force
in the deep element.
Diver on the wreck of the Hilma Hooker, Bonaire. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last year I read Will Potter’s excellent book “Green is the New Red.” As Potter reveals, in post 9/11 America even the most casual supporter of animal or green issues can be labeled a domestic terrorist. So it’s neither paranoid or self-aggrandizing to say that even though I intend to break no laws and do no physical harm to persons or property, I also don’t feel entirely comfortable writing about every single shark-related thing I do, even if it seems only mildly subversive, such as organizing shark unions, etc.
Today I hopped around the internet trying to figure out what cosmetic companies still use shark-based squalene in their cosmetics. Squalene comes from the livers of deep water species like the strangely beautiful green-eyed gulper shark (above) and is used as an emollient in lipsticks and lotions. Squalene also occurs naturally in olives. But since the shark-based version requires a shorter processing time and produces a higher yield than theplant-based version, many companies prefer shark liver ingredients to the less brutal alternative.
Back in 2008, L’Oreal and Unilever, and Estee Lauder vowed to ditch the shark liver oil and use plant-based substitutes. Forgive me for doubting the word of large corporations that also conduct animal testing, but I wonder if the squalene in Kiehl’s #1 Lip Balm is shark or not. (Kiehl’s was bought by L’Oreal in 2000).
These morally murky corporate takeovers are a good reason to stick to cosmetic and personal care products made by companies like Lush who recently partnered with SharkSavers even selling a limited edition Shark Fin Soap.
Chantecaille will donate 5% of sales of their Save the Sharks Palette of Eye & Cheek shades to the BLOOM Association which fights the unregulated shark fin trade.
Today’s action: I signed a petition to ban gill nets, arranged a guest lecture featuring legendary shark expert Ralph Collier at Glendale College, and designed an assignment that asks students to track down shark ingredients in cosmetics, and even (???) energy drinks.
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