Happy Shark Week!

This precious baby above is a Sand Tiger shark. He looks quite vicious, as his mouth is constantly open and bears quite a few nasty teeth. This type of shark, however, is particularly harmless and non-aggressive. Additionally, their jaws are not built to eat large creatures, and they'd rather not have to take multiple bites for a meal. They keep their mouth open in order to breathe underwater and will only attack humans if provoked. They are the only shark known to gulp air, as storing air in their stomachs allow them to float still in the water, making it easier to catch unsuspecting fish. Looks can be deceiving no matter what species. (Personal photo taken at the Georgia Aquarium--a place of dreams)

Does else anyone think it's curious that millions of people across the nation (and quite possibly the world) take time out of their days during a singular summer week to watch educational programs about sharks?

Today I sat down with a young five-year-old girl who I have been trying to teach Star Wars and marine science to. This young lady particularly likes television shows such as Spongebob Squarepants. While the animation is colorful and arguably quite beautiful, I find myself a bit agitated at the improbability of it all. Life underwater would not be able to contain crabby patties or the same terrestrial laws of physics, nor should children think it possible to make jelly out of jellyfish.

I flipped off the cartoons and turned on the Discovery channel, as my friends have been wishing me a happy Shark Week. Most of the dialogue was inarticulate for a five year old to follow, but the show itself showed a group of divers trying to prove that sharks are not the cold blooded killers we often think them to be. The stars of this episode in particular were great white sharks, who have been known to be more aggressive than other species. Kennin, the young girl, was confused as to why the sharks didn't eat the divers. I explained to her that people don't go around eating everything in sight that they see, though Kennin confessed that she is hungry all the time. We are constantly surrounded with things that are "edible" in a sense: tv remotes, couches, tables, books. We do not, however, think of these items as appetizing. Sharks do not think humans are particularly enticing, and sharks mostly do not voluntarily choose to taste a human. In fact, sharks are not the voracious eaters we always imagine them to be. Rather, they are sort of like vultures and often eat the dead and dying fish instead. This isn't to say that sharks are lazy; Rather, sharks help maintain healthy ecosystem balances and are dire parts of oceanic life.

Reports of shark attacks are almost always accounts of sharks being under stress or mistaking a human for another creature. It is advisable to not go swimming in the ocean when one is wounded, as sharks can detect such stress from quite a distance and will indeed seek to "clean up" their territory. When sharks do bite, however, they usually don't take much more than one bite; humans are not particularly delicious. Unfortunately, one bite from a large jaw with rows upon rows of sharp teeth can do a lot of damage. Sharks are not going to seek out innocent and unsuspecting humans, but there are precautions humans should take when in shark territories.

As the program progressed, Kennin thought it interesting that the divers would swat their hands at the shark who swam towards the diver. I explained to her how the diver is telling the shark that he (the diver) is not to be messed with. These divers study sharks for a living and know how to read shark behavior. That's why when the shark showed the divers his teeth, the divers decided to leave the water and respect the shark's territory. Like most animals, barring one's teeth is a sign of threat or aggression.

The grand finale in the program consisted of a female great white shark revealing her stomach to a snorkeler. This behavior is an act of submission, or like a hand shake as I explained to Kennin. The shark then allowed the snorkeler to hold onto her fin and swim 75' with her--just like a trained dolphin might. Kennin understood this as the shark and snorkeler becoming friends, and I was awe-struck by this friendship.

Sharks are creatures that date back before the dinosaurs, and they are some of the most feared and misunderstood creatures on this planet. Though I recognize many of the Shark Week programs are about shark attack survivors and often dramatize shark's predator capabilities, I am incredibly thankful that the discovery channel can help people rethink their understanding of what sharks are. The ocean stretches over 2/3rds of our earth, and sharks are the ones who regulate and control the water. That means sharks are much more influential than we might think; as stewards of the earth, it is our responsibility to ensure that they are treated with the same delicacy and respect that we give to all life.

Shark Video : Here is a trailer for a Shark documentary that seeks to help people better understand sharks' roles in our world. They are becoming increasingly threatened by humans' fear of and disinterest in their well-being. By seeking to learn more about the worlds' odd inhabitants, however, we begin to see how dependent humans are on the intricate balances maintained by all forms of life.

Using Finding Nemo Friends to Transcend the Gender Binary

Not only are women discovering what it means to have equal rights, women and men both are now redefining what it is to be a "woman." Gender roles are being subverted, leaving both stereotypes and cultural expectations unfulfilled.

These movements in what we understand about our own gender can be explored through looking back unto nature. Take for instance one of the most bizarre gender roles I've encountered: the angler fish. The angler fish is of course featured in the film Finding Nemo. (Remember that working in an aquarium makes you relate fish through Disney films to keep kids' attention) It has giant scary teeth and this peculiar little light (bioluminescence) that helps attract prey to it, as the angler fish lives in the deep ocean where sunlight does not reach. The angler fish floats motionless and waves its light around. Due to the deep ocean (3,000') being particularly scarce in grub, the angler fish can expand its stomach and swallow prey twice the size of the angler fish's entire body. One might assume that this terrifying creature is a male, but the male is actually a much smaller fish. The male fish loses its ability to feed itself when it reaches maturity due to the degeneration of its digestive system. Thus, the male goes out looking for a way to eat and ends up biting onto a female angler fish. The Male's teeth are conveniently hook shaped and easily latch on, but once he takes a bite, he releases an enzyme that both melts his lips and melts part of the female. This process literally fuses the bodies together as one, giving new meaning to the romantic idea of being one with your significant other. This is almost a parasitic union however, as the male feeds off of the female's nutrients and is only used by the female as an instant way to spawn. Additionally the female can carry up to six males on her body at a time and is by no means monogamous. Thus, the female angler fish is the dominant gender, the socially accepted multi-partner gender, the physically larger and the aggressive, head of house-hold gender. All of these are not what we would normally think of as female due to our cultural history, but this change in defining our gender is by no means unnatural. A more comical explanation of this process can be found here: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler

Beyond the redefining of gender roles, we are also re-examining whether or not we can be simply male or female. We may have the goods to be defined as either male or female, but we can identify our emotions and sentiments with a gender that is not our physical own. There are hermaphroditic relationships all over nature. Sequential hermaphrodites are born as one gender but can later change into another such as our beloved Nemo the clown fish. Clown fish engage in protandry and are born as males in which both reproductive and not yet reproductive males lives in a harem together with a large, singular female for reproduction. When the female dies, one of the reproductive males will become the female and one of the sexually immature males will mature. Simultaneous reproduction exists when one organism possesses both male and female parts, such as earthworms and slugs. (And, allegedly, Jamie Lee Curtis upon her birth)

Thus, gender roles undergo change throughout nature. Perhaps it is one thing to literally become a female fish in the anemone than it is to be born a man and "feel" more like a woman, but we also can't quite say for sure whether or not animals endure a mere gender change mentality. What we "feel" is "natural," isn't it?

Juxtaposing Cornelius Fudge and the Current Oil Disaster

Everyone seems to hate both the film and movie for Harry Potter Year V, The Order of the Phoenix. Harry is 15, but who wasn't utterly annoying at the age of 15? I feel that Harry has a bit of an excuse considering his parents were murdered, the "family" who is supposed to love and support him through difficult times constantly puts him down and loathes him, he just witnessed the death of a friend by the hand of the dark lord who killed Harry's parents, and no one believes Harry that Voldemort is back. In fact, as the wise Luna Lovegood points out, Voldemort is trying to make Harry feel alone by turning the magic world against him. I'm thinking Harry Potter deserves a bit of angst, so I appreciated J.K. Rowling's depiction of human emotion.

Why am I discussing Harry Potter on a nature blog? Well, I believe in intertwining disciplines and practices to better see how interconnected the world really is. Let's take one of the largest lessons of that book: we must accept, confront and believe in ourselves in order to do what is right. This is most apparent in Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic, who refuses to believe that Voldemort is back out of utter fear. He's so afraid to admit it to himself that he creates an elaborate mess of the magic world by employing the nightmarish woman Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts. Umbridge tries to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts without the use of wands, sort of like Chemistry without lab time (see my previous blog for how that works out), and completely robs the school of a real education.

As much as I'd love to kick Tony Hayward, BP CEO, in the face, I'm beginning to see him as a Cornelius Fudge archetype. He's not evil, and he definitely didn't intend to destroy an ecosystem (well, quite a few now), a culture, and many people's lives across the world. He has said a lot of terribly inconsiderate things, and seems to constantly underestimate the severity of the situation. He wants his life back, it's a small spill in a large ocean, yadda yadda.

An oil spill is nothing like the dark lord returning. An oil spill is indeed an accident, but it is an accident that can be better relegated through efficient safety precautions and procedures to both prevent and efficiently take care of disasters when they happen. I for one have had sincere difficulty trying to pay attention and write about the oil spill. It's by far the worst part about having a degree in environmental studies or simply caring about the world--you are challenging yourself to learn about everything that is going on, only to feel incredibly helpless that you're only one person in a culture that tears at the seams of the earth. It's been hard for me to sleep at night since the April 20th explosion turned into one of the greatest technological disasters in the history of the United States.

We have the right to be whiney like Harry Potter, and we do have an excuse to point fingers for a while. But what it all comes down to is that something terrible is happening (and with the recent cap, let's hope it'll stop leaking now for good), and it is our responsibility to fight it. We may not of been the ones who had a poorly designed or executed engineering plan to drill off shore. We may not be the ones who blatantly and public undermine the complexity of our mistakes. We are, however, able to accept what has happened unlike Cornelius Fudge. We are also able to talk about what has happened, to learn about what is happening and to spread this to those who may find be struggling to grasp what is happening. We can write about it on blogs, send out e-mails, write letters to our state legislators, write to companies like BP who use offshore drilling and discuss how serious this problem is. We can also reduce our own oil intake by carpooling, riding bicycles, taking public transportation. We can do research, ask questions, and challenge ourselves to be aware and face what is going on. Without all of us challenging each other to do something, we won't get anywhere. This may seem discouraging, but I believe we are all inherently good people who make their own choices. As Dumbledore said, "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

You may not have the ability to stop what is happening on your own. You can, however, chose to do something.

http://www.restorethegulf.gov/ Here is the government's site on updates and information on how to help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yshPScxTw8s This is a friend's video of how she is helping.

And, if the current cap on the oil spill stops the oil from spilling, please know that it's NOT over. There is still oil in the soil from the Exxon Valdez spill from 1989. We need to assure that BP and the rest of the United States finishes cleaning the mess, as all things in this world are connected.

Science Education

So, remember how "they" always said people are either right or left brained? People are either creative or rational, good at math or good at writing. Well, I'd like to deconstruct this theory. To begin, I double majored in English Writing and Environmental Studies. I can spend an afternoon reading, and I find solving math equations to be relaxing.

I used to think I was stupid. I really loved exploring and being outside, but I didn't seem to do well in my science classes. I could easily get a good grade in my English courses by reading the homework, but even if I tried to read the Chemistry textbook, I didn't necessarily do well on the test.

But, now that I look back on it, perhaps it wasn't my own incapability that hindered me from being proficient in my science courses. Maybe I wasn't being taught science in the way I needed to be taught. My freshman biology class was taught at 9am by my freshmen basketball coach, a woman who I feared. We spent most of our time sleepily memorizing diagrams from an overhead projector and never truly understood the relationship between all these unrecognizable words we memorized. My chemistry class was taught by a kind and intelligent woman who had previously retired and was rehired due to a lack of available teachers. I was in an on-level science class in a public school despite the fact that all my other classes were AP or Honors, and it showed. Every day there was a group of boys who would disrupt our class and make the teacher cry, so we would read from the unreadable dense and confusing Chemistry textbook instead of working through labs, hearing our teacher's explanations as she writes on the board or discussing in groups what it all meant. I never even took a Physics class because I was too scared. I instead took an Aquatic Science course where we watched Finding Nemo and our field trip to the beach was cancelled since most of the class was failing. Needless to say, I thought I was merely right brained and wasn't supposed to be good at science.

Yet, I loved science. My brother and I's dream is to have a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. I ride my bike at night just to hear the calls of toads, I became scuba certified and literally giggle when I see pictures of fish. I volunteered at a local aquarium, took science classes despite the fact that I was an English major in college. I suddenly found myself in love with ecology--our field trip for Ecology and Evolution consisted of canoeing out into the swamp at night, and I loved every minute of it. I began to realize that learning science is a lot different than learning history or understanding literature; it's not harder. I felt somewhat cheated that I never learned about Evolution until I was a Junior in college, but I was also glad that I finally faced my fear of science and worked hard enough to make sense of it.

Though I am just now beginning to challenge myself, I've noticed how many kids in high school are just as scared, if not more, of science as I was. To raise a generation of kids to be afraid of science in a society that already struggles with understanding the world is a dangerous thing. To think--we use words like "believe" with scientific realities like global warming and evolution. We cannot let ourselves become disillusioned with science and understanding how the world works. If anything, we should learn how to make science easier to understand. Just as I needed the right teacher and experience to appreciate science, the general public can become more acquainted with science if we learn how to more legibly express it. Had that chemistry book I read been more legible, maybe I would've actually comprehended those exams. I actually wanted to be a scientist when I was a little kid but was far too afraid to pursue the dream when I couldn't understand my science textbooks.

I guess that's why I'm so dedicated to merging my passion for writing and my passion for ecology--the world is far too interesting for people to limit themselves to being merely right or left brained.

Avatar

One of the most expensive films to date, James Cameron's Avatar, is heavily laced with ecological overtones and borrows from classic films that came before it. Yet it is more than "dances with smurfs," as it examines the struggle between science for research and science for the sake of control; reality unto the imagined; heroism and martyrdom; and passion versus professional education.

I first saw the film over Christmas break at a 10pm showing with my father and brother. I wasn't prepared for the 2 hours and 40 minutes of a head-ache inducing 3-D acid trip. I was indeed overwhelmingly impressed with the advancement of CGI, the imagination and thoughtfulness of the film's visual design, and the attempt to argue for ecological awareness. Upon the car ride home, however, I could not say whether or not I liked the film; I was stuck debating whether or not I thought the climactic scene of a literal war on terrorism was ethical for the "network of all living things" to undertake. I hated how predictable and corny the dialogue was, I didn't like that the unobtainable resource bringing the humans to invade another planet was actually called "unobtainium," though I was interested in this plot as an allegory to the war on terrorism/war for oil in the Middle East.

After being undecided on my feelings towards the film, I bought the movie while in Fredericksburg, Texas. My stepfather is an avid science fiction lover and will spend his free weekends watching the Sy Fy channel and recorded Stargate episodes. My cousin is visiting from Arkansas and has a genuine appreciation for the world around her. We watched the film this evening, and I tried to ignore my English major's learned hesitancy towards an overwhelmingly Hollywood style production.

After having spent two weeks in Belize with a bunch of biologists, I was impressed with how closely related the CGI created nature was to a real jungle. Most of the life was recognizable, though with obvious deviations, and accurately represented an earthly balance of a complex ecosystem. The seeds of the sacred tree look exactly like bri-bri flowers (see above picture), and the lemurs acted and looked particularly like the spider monkeys who annoyingly swung from all the trees.

Interestingly enough, Cameron had his crew stay in Hawaii in order to get a feel for the "rain forest." With 60% of the film being computer generated, there was no actual rain forest set design for the actors to work with. The cast went hiking, built campfires and ate fish. At night, however, they slept in the Four Seasons hotel (imdb). Hawaii is also a series of small volcanic islands and the islands do not contain any sort of large mammal like the jaguar-like cat or the rhino-like tapir in the film. This attempt to be "one with nature" as an acting technique through false, unrealistic means is similar to that of the premise of the film. Jake Skully finds freedom through being an Avatar. The word avatar was first employed to mean an incarnation of a Hindu deity (Merriem-Webster). It was only recently used to define an electronic image controlled and representing a computer user. Through this "electronic" world, Jake is able to walk and move freely despite his actual paralysis. This is why Jake foolishly rushes outside of the hospital, gets bored in the forest and thereby gets attacked by a panther(?), and is also why he is chosen by Eywa in the first place--for he literally has nothing to lose since the virtual world gives him so much more freedom than the real world, therefore he has nothing to fear. In summation, Jake must artificially experience nature in order to understand it. Though he is racing with dragons and dating the chief's daughter, his real body is still sleeping in a machine.

This is much like the way we experience "nature." I scuba dive in order to better understand the ocean's inhabitants. I often believe I was a fish in a former life, yet I am still a human not built to breath underwater relying on equipment to keep my lungs from collapsing. Being a scuba diver is not much different than being a dual DNA Avatar in a fictitious planet. When we go hiking in national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone, we are not trekking through raw, wild nature. We are walking paths set for us where many people have been and therefore chased off most wildlife we would normally see. It is a tamed wilderness, not much different than a zoo, and is a false image of what natural truly is.

If we can shake the hokey blue man Avatar image from our minds and put our own experience of nature in the film's intentions, we can arrive at a particularly valuable lesson. Jake begins to explore nature as a Marine, or as taking orders. We begin to experience nature because a. it's an "escape from reality" (though what's more real than nature?) b. we are curious, interested in travel and exploration and c. we are adventurous. Yet like Jake, once we immerse ourselves more deeply within nature and attempt to "read"the forest, we begin to notice things. Certain bird calls mean that the sun will rise the next day, leaf-cutter ants come out after a heavy rain, jaguars can smell the scent of a human and is thereby why they are so hard to see in the wild. Once we begin to understand the language of nature, we begin to lose the shell we go into nature with. This is comparable to the old fogy Thoreau himself when he stops fishing and merely watches the fish--we go into the woods and live falsely; the more we let go of what we think we should do and allow ourselves to be open, the more we actually contemplate nature.

I'm not saying we should gather all of our forests friends and take "an eye for an eye" as Cameron's film suggests. I am still bothered by this epic conclusion in which Cameron justifies warfare in order to achieve peace. I do think Avatar's simple use of the avatar to get into nature and teach the audience how to begin thinking ecologically is successful. Still, we must remind ourselves that we are still living falsely in reality. Green "fashion" is not true ecological consciousness, as while I am writing this blog entry, I am using energy and polluting the environment. Yet the more we pay attention to our actions, the more we are able to be conscious of how to read the world around us. The more we read of the trail, tracks, scents and sounds around us, the more we are able to return to the nature we live as avatars within.

The Jaguar Shark

It was only months before that I crossed state lines in my two door focus to catch a glimpse of the whale sharks of the Georgia Aquarium. Little did I know, I would soon see whale sharks in their natural habitat.

There's a scene in Wes Anderson's film The Life Aquatic in which the characters, angered and hurt by one another, come across the much anticipated jaguar shark. Though Steve Zissou intends to kill this shark in order to avenge his friend, seeing this shark swimming in the wild is so profound that no one can do anything but stare. "Staraflur" by Sigur Rós plays in the background and despite how much of an asshole Steve has been through the entire film because he has difficulty expressing human emotion, he wonders if the shark remembers him. It is at this point in the film where reconciliation occurs, as everyone in the cramped submarine places their hand on Steve as an act of human connection and comfort. Thus, this beautiful shark, though he may have taken a life, has brought everyone in the submarine together. (watch the scene, abbreviated, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ8U9t4MgN8)

While in the Gladden Spit Placencia Sanctuary, a few biologists, biology students and I went diving into the open ocean. Literally all we could see was an abyss of blue all around us. Beneath us, however, was the ocean floor, over 125' below us and perfectly visible. We spent nearly an hour blowing bubbles and attempting to attract a whale shark, as bubbles can be mistaken for snapper eggs. The dive was unsuccessful though, and we begrudgingly climbed back into the boat. While finding a place for a second dive, however, my professor points out a fin and yells "DOLPHIN!" Upon the animal's second surfacing, we realized it was definitely not a dolphin. Rather, it was a juvenile whale shark. Almost without speaking, the entire boat dives into the water and swims after it. The whale shark swam so close to us that I had to swim out of the way in order not to touch him, as I wanted to respect the wild animal in a sanctuary. The entire moment was unreal--that creature less than two feet from me was one of the most beautiful animals I had ever seen. Even as a juvenile he was so much larger than me, yet he couldn't harm me at all. Of course, I forgot to grab my camera in the excitement of the moment, but I wasn't mad at myself. If anything, I got to enjoy the moment more fully than I could've with a camera to prove I had experienced it. We swam after the whale shark for a while. One of our girls even lost her flipper from a boat engine that was turned on despite the swimmers all across the water.

I didn't really even want to go diving again, my heart was beating so fast and I could feel warm tears on my face with the cool salt water. I had just seen my favorite animal, the largest fish in the world and the creature whose plush stuffed animal version I sleep with at night. But, the dive master threw our BCDs in, and we strapped our equipment on before descending again. This time, instead of the sandy bottom, we saw a swarm of snappers. They were a complete blur because there were so many of them, constantly swimming and engulfing the entire abyss. Suddenly we found ourselves with another dive group and we all kept swimming in circles, over and over, and I kept getting confused as to who I was supposed to be following. Then our dive master points his finger out into the blue abyss, and I try to make out what he's pointing at. Then, out of complete darkness, a figure emerges. I keep staring at the dark figure as it slowly starts to take a recognizable shape, and I see white spots. Once again my chest starts pounding and I have to remind myself that I'm 50' below the water and need to stay calm--it was a 35' whale shark. I start to swim faster than I knew I could swim after him, snapping pictures with my dive camera and completely disregarding the need to keep breathing. I just find myself staring at him, wanting to understand what I was looking at and in awe of just how huge he was and how he didn't seem to care that we were watching. I was so excited that I actually threw up through my regulator, a habit I've never had, but being someone who swears they were a fish in another life witnessing a whale shark will make you act quite strangely.

I think Wes Anderson captured the scene of complete awe with something so powerful in nature quite perfectly. Aquariums like the one I worked at help others to truly see what else exists in the world and builds curiosity and passion for such life. But actually seeing it in the wild and feeling completely insignificant to a life so profound is a concept beyond my limited understanding. This feeling must be what John Muir felt exploring the Sierra Nevada or why sailors were so afraid of whales. This feeling is what keeps people fighting for the environment when it's completely exhausting. The current situation in the Gulf of Mexico has made me hardly able to eat. To think that not only an entire ecosystem is being hurt by the inefficiency of a corporation living up to its responsibility, but an entire culture is now devastated. Perhaps this disaster will help our political leaders better comprehend how vulnerable the natural world is to our responsibilities. Even if it's hard to convince a politician to protect the whale sharks that he has no idea just how beautiful they truly are, it must mean something to see an entire region infuriated, seafood markets and tourism devastated, and an important coastline flooded with oil and suffering life.

What is Nature?

How would you define nature?

Often times we think of "nature" as green, beautiful landscapes. We think of nature as "natural" and define a word with the very word we are trying to define.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (Man, I'm going to miss being a college student), nature is:

1. Senses relating to physical or bodily power, strength, or substance.
2. Senses relating to mental or physical impulses and requirements.
3.Senses relating to innate character.
4. Senses relating to the material world.

How does this help us to define what nature is? Nature is the sensory experience of bodily strength? Nature is our physical impulses or mental requirements? Nature is the senses related to who we really are? Nature is what is experienced in the material, tangible world?

Timothy Morton discusses how to disassociate our idea of nature as landscape and butterflies, for every aspect of our lives is nature. Just as music is about notes and sounds, music is also about the silences in between notes. Nature is not just what we see, but nature is the mere act of seeing something and the act of perceiving sight through sensory organs. By understanding nature as all of these things and not just pastoral images, ecology must take on new significance. I have no idea what Morton does with this newly constructed ecology as I have only read a chapter of his book, but I'll let you know when I do. (See for yourself: http://ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com/, Zizek claims Morton's book is "Outstanding")

Why do I seek to define what nature is? I think we all too often put nature outside ourselves. We are Homo sapiens, of the Mammalia class, the order of Primates, the phylum Chordata and the Animalia kingdom. Thus, we are part of nature. Even me typing this into a computer is an action I've acquired through natural tendencies of the society I live in. Perhaps by seeing nature in all things, we can better see how intricately interrelated all of nature is and the dire need to resolve the ecological crises. If not for ethics, then we must better tend to our relatives plants, other animals and organic matter because their decline will lead in our own demise.