Author - Erich Hoyt

Our hearts go out to our many Japanese friends and colleagues at this difficult time. The whole world is watching these terrible unfolding events. We would like to pass on our sympathies to those who have lost friends and family, and those who continue to face daily hardships in the aftermath of this huge earthquake, the continuing strong aftershocks, the tsunami and threat of further tsunamis, and the radiation concerns from the nuclear power reactors.

Several of us at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have visited Japan over the years. I have visited 12 times, most recently in December and have many close Japanese friends who work on whale and marine science and conservation issues from the far northern part of the country to the southernmost islands. I have watched whales in the Kuroshio off eastern Japan, not far from where the earthquake and tsunami struck with its greatest force. Yesterday I found out that Mr. Miyauchi, the enthusiastic owner of the whale watch company in Choshi who took me out that day, lost his office, the moorings for his whale watch boat, and his car in the tsunami but he and his staff and families are safe. When my friend talked to him on the phone this morning, he cried — not from personal loss but from the heavy cumulative loss of so many lives and livelihoods in his town and all the towns along the northeast coast of Japan.

From around the world, we are all deeply impressed with the strength of character of Japanese people as a caring society and we know that you will remain strong, even gain strength, in this difficult time. Japan is often the first to come to the aid of other countries and we will encourage our governments to help Japan as well. On a personal basis, too, we would like you to know that we are with you, we feel your pain, and will stay the course.

World Oceans Day, 8 June 2010. Eulogy for the Gulf of México. Let us now remember and celebrate the life of what was one of the most species diverse and productive corners of the world ocean: the now beleaguered Gulf of México, its brilliance long to be stained by the reality and the legacy of one of the world’s largest ever oil spills.

Supposedly now being contained on the north side of the Gulf, the spill was last compared to the size of Luxembourg but that doesn’t account for the three-dimensional penetration of the mile-plus water column.

The human addiction to oil — and corporate greed shouting out in its willingness to take extraordinary risks for profit —has much to answer for.

Of course, the Gulf itself is not dead. But sadly the world will now think of oily destruction whenever they hear “Gulf of Mexico”. How long it will take the Gulf to get back to “normal”?

For now, the bodies pile up: seabirds, turtles, fish, dolphins. The fishing boats lie rusting in the marinas. The beaches are near empty. And all over the world, the people who trusted the can’t-miss blue chip BP with their pensions and investments, will suffer, too. Even the oil workers on other rigs in the Gulf have been choking on the fumes, and many have been evacuated. Spare a thought for those species that have nowhere to go but to try to live, and sooner or later die, in the mess.

Let us now remember this sea of gold. Please remember the gold was never the oil; it was the fish, shrimp, dolphins, whales, the sea itself. This golden sea will long be tarnished.

Let this at least be a warning to those who may become similarly blinded by the promise of false gold beneath the sea, eager and willing to risk our future, and our children’s future. We can’t let it happen again.