YOU THERE – YES – I’M TALKING TO YOU
What’s all this ridiculous nonsense about climate conspiracies and fake news about climate change? It’s all BS fabricated by people with special interests. But let’s get real here. Why would ANYONE be against improving and protecting our environment, except the people making a lot of money from the status quo? Let’s break this down.
Everyone who loves to fish for recreation: Maybe it’s fishing the ocean off a private boat, charter boat, rental boat, or party boat. Maybe it’s fishing off a beach with a rod holder in the sand, or off a pier, dock, jetty, bridge, kayak. How about fly-fishing in a river, lake, or stream? Perhaps you may prefer bully netting, ice-fishing, spear fishing, crabbing, shrimping, or clamming. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you love fishing! You love the water! You love the sensations of being out in nature. Why in the world wouldn’t you care about the health of our waters and the marine life you so love? Fish ARE disappearing from overfishing, pollution, plastics, and destruction of habitat. People ARE catching and keeping smaller fish as the bigger fish disappear. The smaller fish are not mature enough to reproduce, so populations of fish keep getting smaller. Wouldn’t you like to be fishing with your children and grandchildren down the road? What are you doing to help keep our waters clean and healthy and prevent overfishing so fish populations can grow and thrive? This has nothing to do with silly conspiracy theories about scientists or left-wing socialists. IT’S JUST FISHING!
Scuba-divers, free-divers, and snorkelers: You already know it’s a complete rush to be breathing underwater and swimming with or near so many amazing sea creatures. It can even be a spiritual experience. Looking down as you snorkel and diving below the surface is also a fabulous feeling. You are right there, and you are one with the sea. It doesn’t get much better. Coral reefs, mangroves, estuaries, and seagrass are dying and disappearing. Water temperatures are rising causing acidification and bleaching. When the coral reefs die, the ecosystem is adversely impacted and most of those gorgeous fish and sea creatures are forced to find a new habitat where they can survive. Most of us pay a lot of money to go diving which includes maintaining our equipment or renting it. How good will you feel about diving on a dead reef full of garbage, plastics, and fishing or boating debris? What are you doing to help prevent this from happening?
Boaters – motor and sail (windsurfers and wave runners included): You LOVE the water! You put a lot of time and money maintaining, cleaning, insuring, storing, and trailering your boats, etc. Maybe you just love cruising. Maybe you like docking at restaurants for meals or drinks. Maybe you take long voyages, head out to popular sandbars, find an island or national park to explore, anchor and tie up with your friends, or sleep on your boat. Do you like pulling up to a beach or inlet and seeing garbage strewn all over the place, covering up the mangroves or lying on the sand? Do you like seeing garbage floating on, in, and below the water? What about uncontrolled overgrowth of algae, red tides, or fish kills? Do you want to swim or waterski in dirty or polluted water? There are a lot of selfish people out there who couldn’t care less. They have expensive and very powerful boats, and they throw their garbage into the water or leave it wherever they go. They aren’t considerate and they aren’t real boaters. They are pigs who expect others to clean up their mess. IF YOU TRULY LOVE THE WATER, YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM NOR WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO BE ONE OF THEM!
OUR WATERS DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP! If you are passionate about any of these activities, YOU need to join in and help. Do not pay attention to those people with their own agenda passing bad information about environmental issues. YOU ONLY NEED TO BELIEVE YOUR OWN EYES! We need help from politicians and lawmakers. But they will not hear us unless we are screaming in their faces. The more people who care about our beautiful environment and push for changes to protect what they love, the greater our voice will be.
Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash
