BIG BLUE

If you ever wondered what it would be like to float in space or visit a planet that has real aliens, look no further than the ocean. There are some weird creatures in there. And you can float like an astronaut, a little closer to home.

Today, we are talking about life below water—the big blue.

Rivers and Roads

Last August, Jesse and I traveled up to Juneau, Alaska; ”the great land,” as it is loosely translated from the Aleut word "Alyeska.” It swept me off my feet and transported me to a place where my daydreams of tramping through rainforests and sustenance fishing, of living alongside animals that could kill me, and of adventure were real. We were staying in a place that was impossible to drive to. You had to come by boat or plane. Juneau was tied to the ocean.

My dream for a long while was to eat a fish I caught—to participate in the food cycle firsthand rather than through the grocery store. Coming from Ohio, I would say I am not of fishing heritage, nor would I have ever dared to eat anything that was caught out of our nearest body of water—the Ohio River. This was my chance.

We had a week in Juneau and relied on the bus system to take us from place to place. After doing my research, I found that a fishing permit was easily acquired at the local fish and game office and accessible by bus. When we arrived, I asked so many questions that Geoff, the fish and game employee, quickly saw me as a noob, a “never caught a fish before” type of person. But man, was the man helpful. He not only sold us a permit but also loaned us a salmon rod, gave us a map of the local fishing spots and a chart of which species of salmon can be found in those areas at what time of year, and sent us off with a deck of cards (what a pleasant surprise!).

I knew we needed to buy bait and hooks. But when we arrived at the sporting goods store, I realized I had no idea what lured the salmon to bite. So…I called the fish and game office, and guess who answered? It was Geoff! What a patient man. He told me all I needed was a Mepps Flying C spinner. I wish he could have seen my puzzled look. I was incredibly skeptical that salmon would just bite a bit of hard metal—no bait needed. Geoff assured me. I guess salmon are not in the market for worms, like my Ohio pond fish are.

With a permit, a rod, and a spinner in hand, we set out to find some salmon. This was my chance to learn about how to identify them, the vital role they play in the Alaskan ecosystem, and how incredible their life journey is.

Because we were limited by the bus system, we went for long walks through the Juneau area in search of the little fishing spots marked on the map Geoff gave us. It was like a treasure hunt, and I was as giddy as a 5-year-old kid pretending to be a pirate. We put on our raincoats and trekked through what felt like a rainforest to the first spot on the map. Before we arrived, we could smell the presence of salmon. We caught whiffs of potent burn-your-nostrils ammonia and then saw an increasing number of dead and rotting salmon cast up on tree branches or stuck on twiggy rocks.

There are five types of salmon that run around Juneau. Each species grows in the ocean and then travels up freshwater streams to spawn at different times of the summer. When the salmon leave the saltwater, they stop feeding and change morphology. To make the grueling journey upstream, they simply burn body fat and then lay eggs or spawn. After all that, they die, releasing nutrients into those freshwater ecosystems. Thus, the salmon in the bushes.

Seeing all the dead salmon, I thought we missed our window, but approaching the stream, we saw our first live one. Then 10, then 20. Though the Coho and Sockeye salmon had already spawned, the Pink salmon were indeed making their journey up this very shallow stream their ancestors had traveled for centuries. They were humpy and not the bright red king salmon that you see in ads, but still good to eat. We fished.

Since the salmon no longer eat at this point of their journey, we tried to make our metal spinner look as tempting as possible. We needed some Doritos (who doesn't like Doritos?) or something because they were not biting. After three days of trekking to different fishing spots and casting and reeling, we finally came to a spot on the ocean at the mouth of a creek. Another local-looking man came as we were fishing at this spot. He caught a salmon within 15 minutes. I was floored. After watching and imitating, I ended up asking him for tips. He showed me how he cast and where the salmon were most likely to be. It worked. I caught my first salmon.

This posed a new problem. I was excited to have caught something, but I don’t like bonking fish! I had scoured YouTube the nights before for all the fish-preparing information I could find, and the steps were as follows: knock the fish out, bleed it, then clean and filet it. I’m skipping the part where we did the first two things and then stuck the fish in a plastic bag in my backpack and took it on the bus back to our kitchen. It was not my favorite. But it was a part of the process, so I did it.

Through our long search for a salmon, my perception of the silly fish changed. When smoked salmon is sold as lox on a (delicious) bagel in New York, I could eat almost infinite amounts of the fish. But here in Juneau, I was humbled to eat something that was a deeply rooted part of this big Alaskan ecosystem. I saw how difficult their journey was. I spotted whales that were attracted to the area because the nutrients from the dead salmon feed massive amounts of krill. I hiked through the forests that are fertilized by the nitrogen and phosphorous brought from the sea by the salmon. I saw bears feeding their young and stocking up for the winter by fishing these creeks. Everything was connected to the salmon. I was connected to the salmon.

Things You Didn’t Notice

SECRETS OF THE OCEAN

The ocean, our big bathtub, is hard to describe from our lofty land view. Most human civilization lies close to the ocean, but a sunrise or sunset over an ocean that is mostly depleted looks exactly the same as over an ocean that is teeming with life. So how is it doing? For what do we owe thanks to the ocean? What can we do to check in on it here and there?

The first thing that comes to mind is the impact of plastic pollution on our water ecosystems. Most have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but it is hard for us land dwellers to visualize what a garbage patch in the ocean looks like. It is (unfortunately) not an island. If it were, it would be much easier to clean up. Instead, imagine every single inch of Texas being covered in a sheet of plastic as thick as a sheet of paper. Now break that sheet up into different-sized pieces and spread it over the area of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas combined. Here lies the difficulty in cleaning up these gyres of plastic floating in our oceans (yes, there is a garbage patch in each of our oceans). They are spread out, and continually being broken up into smaller pieces without ever fully breaking down. Since about 45% of the plastic comes from industrial fishing nets, we need to both plug up the point sources of consumer plastic pollution AND encourage our fisher friends to refrain from chopping off their nets into the oceans.

As the climate warms, we owe an incredible thanks to the ocean for dampening the heat. This cannot be emphasized enough. 90% of the earth’s warming has been absorbed by the ocean! We are incredibly lucky that this planet has the amount of water that it does because if it had just half of the ocean, we would be roasting in an average surface temperature rise of 4.15 ºC above preindustrial levels rather than the 1.35 ºC of 2023. To put this in perspective, think of the average temperature rise as a fever. With a body temperature of 98.6°F (37°C), humans can survive fevers of 104°F (40°C), but these can cause serious organ damage and fatality when prolonged. That is just an increase of 3 ºC. So, thanks to our ocean, we are not yet experiencing full-fledged earth fever (but we do feel some of the consequences of ocean heat absorption through increases in sea level and stronger storms).

In order to check in on our oceans properly, we need to learn about how lives on land are complexly intertwined with what goes on in the ocean and see how beautiful it is. For one, most of the oxygen we breathe is a product of aquatic algae and phytoplankton respiration that has accumulated in the atmosphere. We get 17% of our edible animal protein from the ocean. Healthy reefs weaken tropical storms and hurricanes and protect coastlines. The ocean has had a fascinating evolutionary history (we know about the extinction of the Dodo, but do we know about Stellar’s sea cow?). These big blue ponds are even responsible for easily spreadable peanut butter!

Once we see why the ocean is important, we must be able to see and share how it changes over time. This means improving the monitoring of marine pollution, biodiversity, species populations, acidification, warming, and sustainable fishing practices. We can protect parts of the ocean like we do national parks and wilderness areas so that those ecosystems are not stressed by fishing. Just because we aren’t fish, doesn’t mean we don’t need (giant bodies of) water.

Refresh

• Health: I’m not the biggest fan of getting wet, but this article has some great points on the benefits of swimming. Dive in.

• Household: Is it better than chicken? Everything you never knew about fish and fishing.

  

• Transportation: See me under the sea with this aqua lung!

• Mentality: Just like the tides rise and fall, life has swings. By slowing things down, we might be better equipped to go with the flow.

• Community: There are many ways we can care for the ocean. But one of them is to come together to protect it from ourselves:

Mouthwatering

WATER ITSELF

Did you know that cold water is perceived to taste better than warm water? Warm water is thought to be more flavorful, which is unfavorable for many.

Everyone has their opinions about what water tastes best. However, there is little correlation between the taste and health safety of water. I’m not saying I am a connoisseur (like these people), but I do take my water pretty seriously.

Having been on the road a lot, I have tasted many tap waters. I must say that there are some I love and some I hate. The ones that taste worse to me tend to taste metallic and more acidic or salty. It is easy to villainize tap water and opt for the safer feeling of bottled water, since it doesn’t go through those same old pipes…or does it?

Bottled water is not safer than tap water. In fact, there is more plastic found in bottled water than in tap water, and most bottled water is repackaged tap water that has then been shipped across the country. Have you ever had water that tasted like plastic? I have. In the U.S., there are rigorous standards that municipal water providers must meet and make public to ensure safe drinking water, so in almost every corner, your water is safe (and more sustainable) to drink straight from the tap.

Have you ever really tasted your water? Try it, and let me know what you think.

Game Time

FIX IT

I challenge you this week to find your closest “maker space.” This could be a place with a bunch of tools, maybe even your garage or your friend's basement. Then play a fun game called “fixer-upper,” where you take something that has been broken for a long time and try and fix it. Especially plastic items. How can we fix plastic things that we so easily throw away?

That chair that has a wobbly leg—fix it.

That polyester sweater that had a hole ripped in the armpit—fix it.

That watch that has a broken band—fix it.

That relationship that has gone on too long—I don’t know what to do about that. Fix it?

For fixing inspiration, here are a few hacks and tips.