As I take my first steps into the scientific research aspect of Make Mine Bluegreen’s mission, I have paused often to reflect…
“Will we find the very threat of trash our research is based on? Are there ghost nets or particles of plastic floating out there somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico as they do in the Pacific Ocean? Will it be worth the effort to find out? Does it matter?”
These are questions one doesn’t normally share openly, but we all ask them along our paths to keep us in tune with our goals; even if it means those goals need to be altered.
But today I ponder openly with you for a reason; I have something to show you. You see with all this reflecting, I question, if there was truly a need for concern then why isn’t somebody already out there doing something about it. And while I ask I still move forward one slow step at a time. And then like a gift from Mother Nature herself I come across something to let me know there really is a reason for all of this, something worth our efforts, worth our attention, something so special has slipped right under our noses all this time.
I’ve come to admit that we ‘Gulfies’ don’t know the Gulf of Mexico as we know the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans. Nor do we see it in a same light. Most of us glance at it as just a large patch of brown water, great for boating, but its fishing is far from being rich and abundant and boasts few diving qualities. We hold little notion that our Gulf holds anything that would amaze us.
POINT IN CASE:
Some years back when the Florida DMV released its “Save Our Whales” license tag, I bought one but wondered where the money was really going to; after all we don’t have any whales, at least not outside of SeaWorld.
Then I learned that the Northern Right Whales, the most threatened of the large whales migrates to the Florida coasts in winter for calving season. “Wow! I thought; that’s pretty cool.” Then just 2 years ago I learned that Sperms whales migrate into the gulf along its deep trenches to hunt in the spring and early summer. These Sperm whales are unique to our area in accordance to their size compared to Sperm whales out in the oceans. Then just last year scientist, Keith Mulin, presented evidence that proved that Orcas live in the Gulf. A whale species, more commonly known for the colder regions, lives here, with a population in the 100’s. I love sharing this new information with our Bluegreen volunteers to the delight of wide eyed surprise. And then just yesterday a Brydes Whale (pronounced Broo-dese), carcass drifted into the Tampa Bay (sadly our visitor perished due to a ship strike). The number one questioned asked by folks was “How did a whale come to be in the Bay?” Well turns out the Brydes Whale, the smallest member of the Rorqual baleen whales, though still uncommon for us, are a frequent flyer of the gulf. A non migratory whale, they come and go all year long… right under our noses.
So last night while I poured over this new information and brushed up on my Cetacean Biology (study of whales), I reflected again… “Should I have stayed in college and completed my degree in Cetacean Biology? Nope. Had I, I would not have been here today making such a fuss over our Gulf.
So while I continue on our journey of research, I may not find the gyra of plastic, researcher Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, found out in the Pacific, but I did find something else far more exciting and worth our efforts that us ‘Gulfies’ need to come to know and see…
“THERE BE WHALES IN THESE WATERS!”
