Monthly Archives: September 2013

Day 72 9/5/13: The Past Tense

by in Education, Literature, Memory, Shark Conservation, Writing and tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Today in shark class we marveled at the oddness of shark biology—the sand tigers’ practice of intrauterine cannibalism (unborn pups eat other embryos while still in the womb) and the unborn big eyed threshers that eat eggs from their mother’s uterus, a practice known as “oophagy.”  (I love the sound of that word–somewhere between “egg” and “oaf”).  We talked of Hawaiian and Aztec shark god myths and marveled at pictures of weird species like dwarf lanterns and goblin sharks.  I suggested we all convert to an ancient shark worshipping religion and walk around the campus in strange wooden masks.The class had the feeling of discovery and aimlessness that grade school classes used to have—“Oooo—look at this weird picture.” I guess my goal, if I had one, was immersion and delight.

I told the class that as a child I mourned the eclipse of “Jaws” reign by “Star Wars” in 1977. Since I lost my father last year, any mention of childhood summons him. My father was, after all, the person who took me to see “Jaws.”  Each memory threatens to pull me into  unknown depths. Even the well-worn stories are reframed by his absence.

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Eyewitness Account: White Shark Sighting!

by in Environment, Shark Behavior, Shark Sighting and tagged , , | Leave a comment

My friend Dana had the eerie luck of seeing a shark breach in Santa Cruz this summer:

From August 12-14th, I was camping at New Brighton State Beach just outside of Santa Cruz with my girlfriend, Valecia and my Portuguese Water Dog, Aesop.  The campsite is on the bluff overlooking the ocean, so in the morning of the 13th, we went to the beach and spent most of the day swimming.

It was a very active day at the beach.  There were people fishing and kayaking, and the ocean seemed active in general.  There were a few young seals in the water playing with a bunch of little kids.  The seals seemed to be very social and curious.  Since my dog likes to swim pretty far out, I remember thinking he looked (perhaps too much) like a baby seal.  Aesop is an expert dog swimmer, but next to the seals, I worried that from a shark’s point of view, he might appear like a sluggish baby seal who had drifted from the group, so I tried to stay close to him in the water.

Valecia went to get supplies from the campsite, and Aesop and I got out of the water.  I was looking at the ocean and suddenly everything seemed very calm.  The seals had all disappeared and the surface of the water appeared still and glassy.  Shortly after, large pelicans starting lining the shore.  There were so many of them, and they were so large, that they scared a few straggling swimmers out of the water.  I looked at the water and thought, “Of all the times I’ve stared at the ocean, it’s never seemed as still and creepy as right now.”  I had never noticed every animal disappear so suddenly before.

And then, I saw a great white shark breach the surface of the water.  His whole body ejected straight up into the air.  The shark wasn’t huge, but I definitely recognized that it was a great white.  He was probably about 9-12 feet long.  The sighting lasted only for a moment, and I was looking around to see if anyone else had seen it.  I was dying to confirm what I had seen because I had never seen anything like this in my entire life.

About 6-8 minutes after the sighting, the pelicans descended into the water en masse.  Shortly after that, all sorts of life returned to the ocean, particularly the scavenging birds.

-Dana Marterella

English: New Brighton State Beach near Santa C...

English: New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, California View of public beach area near cliffs from stairs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Day 71: 9/4/13: The Shark Sees My Soul & Finds It Lacking

by in Animal Welfare, Education, Environment, Marine Conservation | 1 Comment

Section 2 of my shark class met today. Instead of trying to decipher their stony expressions (anxiety, indifference?), I let them write a page describing how they felt about the ocean. One girl told me about her fisherman father who is legally blind and makes his own hooks. Although she is a vegetarian, she respects that her father only catches a fish or two at a time, because it’s better than factory farming. Oh the sheltered bliss of youth! While her father may catch only a poor hapless specimen or two, she has yet to discover the “factory farming of the sea” that is industrial fishing.

Sifting through the narratives of fear of drowning, fear of plankton, joyful memories of the dolphins of Anacapa, I found one student that took an overnight trip to SeaWorld with her seventh grade science honors class and dissected a squid there, another who tried to overcome her fear of sharks by standing in the “shark tunnel” at the aforementioned aqua prison, but confessed, “I didn’t last more than a few seconds without tears rolling down my face. I just can’t face them.” (emphasis mine).

Besides turning every single one of my students against SeaWorld, I look forward to exploring their fear more deeply.

“I just can’t face them,” seems to endow sharks with the power not only to kill, but to see inside the human soul and detect some moral failing there. I thought cats alone possessed this ability.

Day 70: 9/3/13: Back to School

by in Education, Literature, Marine Conservation | 1 Comment

First shark-themed class. Babbled about my project. Showed a seal hunt from “Air Jaws”–trying to exploit/explore that weird human position: thrilled by the predator, empathetic  to the prey. Human beings as part of nature & observers of nature.

Trying to judge the silence of the audience. Were they bored? Enraptured?  Too soon to tell what the chemistry of the group will be. Some classes feel like interminably dull parties in which people with little in common engage in 16-week  conversations. Prattled on about how conservation being fun.  Offered extra credit for seeing Blackfish at the Laemmle in Pasadena.

“Can we watch it online?”

“Buy a ticket,” I snapped.

My God. Sometimes they’re just so lazy.

Talked about shark stereotypes. Of Megalodon. Of Mindless Eating Machines. Made a series of self-deprecating jokes. Realized how hard teaching is. Got a few laughs. Tried to scare away the slackers by telling them they’d be forced to memorize and recite a poem about the sea, remembering when I had to memorize and recite poem about the sea in a 7th grade science class. “I must go down to the sea again to the lonely sea and the sky….” Was I mindlessly repeating the lessons inculcated into me when I was 12? I flashed on my science teacher, Mrs. McClure, staring moodily through her goggles into the quick flame of the bunsen burner.

“Memorization is a lost art,”  I said, fondling my inflatable shark head. Gave my standard, if-you-think-you-might-drop-this-class-hand-in-your-syllabus-on-the-way-out spiel.

A sweet boy with Buddy Holly glasses stopped by my desk. “I have to admit,” he said. “Sharks might be….too overwhelming. I’m was hoping for….you know….Modernism?”

Day 69: 9/2/13: A Woman of Letters

by in Activism, Education, Marine Conservation, Shark Charities and tagged | Leave a comment
Shark fin soup

Shark fin soup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had this bright idea to try to send a letter to every restaurant in the U.S. that serves shark fin soup. So far I’m half way through Massachusetts with a few scattered throughout the South and West.

While a restaurant manager will probably just toss a single, random but polite request in the garbage, if I enlist my student army to help me, maybe we can start making an impact. I imagine truckloads of letters being delivered into steaming kitchens all over the map. Letters are becoming rare things–they have a material weight that e-mails with their digital ephemerality (is that a word?) lack.

Perhaps this accounts for the lack of drudgery I feel stuffing envelopes, buying stamps, depositing messages into the dark unknown of the mailbox.

To access Sharksavers’ resources for restaurant letter writing, click here.

Day 68: 9/1/13: SeaWorld Protest

by in Activism, Animal Welfare, Humor, Pop Culture and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Driving down to the Seaworld, I stopped just south of the weird double-breasted San Onofre nuke plant to take in an ocean view.  As I pulled into the rest area, I saw what looked like the Partridge Family’s multi-colored bus dominating the tiny beachside lot.  Unlike the Partridge’s squeaky clean pattern, each of this bus’s colored squares contained a crazy religious messages:

WHO HAS NOT MOLESTED THEIR SELF PRIVATELY? DON’T LIE TOO.

RICH PEOPLE HIDE THEIR SINS JUST LIKE HOBOS

The prophet/ driver soon appeared at the driver’s side window, shirtless under his overalls and sporting a long, slightly stained white beard. He thrust a Ritz cracker box toward me.

“Donations fer picture-takin!”

I threw a dollar in. “Thanks PJESUSBULBrecious!” he exclaimed, withdrawing into his mobile temple. I have to admit, it’s been a long time since anyone called me “precious” and perhaps the subsequent warmth I felt wasn’t simply the blinding California sun.

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