I have always preferred the Salish name because of its indigenous roots and the fact that Peter Puget, a British aristocrat, never saw the vast, serpentine inland sea that was named for him by Lewis and Clark.
It's sunset, early June, and you can see the ferry to Bainbridge Island in the long, slanting light of early evening. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the sunsets are late as we move toward the Summer Solstice. The light is almost as long as the summer ferry lines as we greet many visitors to our shores.
On this worldwide day of celebrating our blue planet's oceans, please think of something you can do every day to help restore and conserve the watery womb of our world. You might want to start a neighborhood watch or grassroots organizations as I did with Seal Sitters.
Every pupping season from late June through October, we neighborhood Seal Sitters keep watch over seal pups resting on shore while their mothers are out fishing. For more information on Seal Sitters, please see our website: http://www.SealSitters.org
And for more information on World Oceans Day and how to get involved, here's a link:
http://worldoceansday.org
http://blog.arkive.org/2011/06/world-oceans-day-8th-june-2011/World Oceans Day – 8th June 2011ARKive Blog
June 2011
[Several photos]
The 8th of June is World Oceans Day, our annual chance to celebrate all things marine! Coordinated by The Ocean Project and The World Ocean Network, World Oceans Day encourages us to consider everything that the oceans provide us with – from oxygen to climate regulation, food to pharmaceuticals and of course, the breath taking beauty of this underwater wonderland.
By raising awareness of the resources that the oceans provide, World Oceans Day hopes to encourage us to do our bit to protect this valuable environment, especially in these challenging times when factors like climate change, plastic waste, over-fishing and environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill all threaten to damage our oceans beyond repair.
Each year, World Oceans Day takes on a different theme. You may remember that last year’s theme was “Pick your favourite, Protect your favourite” and the ARKive team had great fun picking their favourite marine species. The theme for 2011 and 2012 is “Youth: the Next Wave for Change”, the idea being to inspire young people around the world to care for the marine environment, as the future of ocean conservation is in their hands.
Wherever you are in the world there are loads of ways to get involved, whether you want to get together with friends or colleagues to organise an aquatic clean up, take the Seven C’s Pledge to reduce your environmental impact, or simply host your own celebration of the seas. If you are stuck for ideas, the World Oceans Day website has plenty of suggestions as well as a list of organised events around the globe, as they say, there’s an “ocean of opportunities” to help and celebrate!
And if you need any more inspiration, why not check out the wonderful range of marine species on ARKive: http://www.arkive.org/search.html?q=ocean&output=xml_no_dtd&client=arkive-info&site=arkive-info&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&num=20&proxystylesheet=tng-se
arch&filter=0&getfields=*
And you might also want to enjoy my Northwest classic Living by Water: True Stories of Nature and Spirit: htp://http://www.literati.net/Peterson
www.literati.net/Peterson
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