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OCEAN Magazine Spring 2009, Issue 22
Visions: The Conservation Photography
of Neil Ever Osborne
by Diane Buccheri
See Turtles: Baja California, Mexico Travelogue
by Wallace J. Nichols
Ancient Race to the Sea
by Lucille Dettor
Harbor Seal Healing
by C.J. Bahnsen
Sea Glass Jewelry of Danielle Renée
by Diane Buccheri
Sea Glasses
by Diane Buccheri
Neither Yet This Morning Have I Seen You,
Nor Now
by Tom Sheehan
Circumnavigating the Galápagos of the North
by Chuck Graham
Slipping through the Surf
by Amy Bernays
In Memoriam Gemini Mei
by Murray Alfredson
Meditation in Mist
by Diane Buccheri
A Capital Idea
by John Thomas Clark
The Jet 14
by Matthew Goldman
Stomping on the Sand
by Melba Milak
OCEAN is the first magazine cover to feature CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY
Thanks to Neil Ever Osborne for contributing his Conservation Photography
A glimpse into this issue . . .
“A single voice collectively heard as a symphony of many
has strength in communicating a message of conservation.”
Light, composition, and one moment come together to
make an iconic image for conservation photographer Neil
Ever Osborne. With that he tells a story, an intimate one that
touches the hearts of viewers and remains in their minds. His
vision becomes theirs.
A series of related images gives many connected
perspectives. With these he tells a longer, wider story, simple
and unique, singing its tale, its essence blossoming and
reaching out to its audience.
Neil Ever Osborne documents and communicates his
scientific experience of an environment or an animal with his
photography. The every day portrait, unique in its moment
and artistic perspective, resonates in the audience. A
photograph connects or reconnects its audience with a
place or animal. Through familiarization, Neil hopes to inspire
caring, personal responsibility, and proactive conservation of
biology and ecology.
Photography is an international language. No words are
needed. A photograph captures an intimate moment, an
essence, and conveys that to all who see it.
Modern day conservation concerns are international issues.
A sea turtle that nests on a Japanese beach swims more
than 3,000 miles between its breeding coast and the shores
of Mexico during its migration cycle. If Baja citizens, for
example take measures to allow sea turtles a healthy,
productive,successful feeding region, it is hoped the same
turtles swim past fishing nets across the Pacific and remain
free from poachers, and in the Far East, return to their
ancestral nesting beach, as instinct directs, to nest
successfully. Conservation of these turtles is internationally
dependent as with other animals and the world’s habitats...
by Diane BuccherI
Read more in this issue.
Neil Ever Osborne Photography
 A couple of years ago we worked on a documentary project
with Animal Planet called “Get Out There!” that highlighted
Baja’s best ocean wildlife and natural protected areas while
traveling with the Ellis family of Long Island on the trip of their lives.
(http://tinyurl.c/got-baja)
Out of that experience grew Ocean Revolution’s seeTURTLES.org
Project. We call it “full immersion conservation tourism” and the
idea is to connect great human experiences with ocean wildlife
to saving these amazing animals and the special places they
need.
On our June expedition, we visited some of the important places
where our partner organizations are working on the front lines to
save sea turtles and their habitat. Our visit supported their work
financially and helped grow the conservation tourism efforts that
provide economic alternatives to fishermen and poachers.
Our group rendezvoused in Loreto, where we spent the night.
Loreto is a small charming colonial city on the Sea of Cortez, which
recently held the annual International Sea Turtle Symposium for
1,000 of the world’s leading turtle conservationists representing
some 70 countries . . .
The responses from the visitors and the film crew made it clear that
the “conservation tourism” theme is obvious. Our crew was made
up of former poachers, some who are working to find a new path.
Julio himself has changed directions and is now a clear leader in
conservation work in the region. Supporting this work through
Ocean Revolution’s seeTURTLES.org Project has direct impacts on
efforts to protect green turtles and the larger Bahia Magdalena
ecosystem.It’s a sure cure for Nature Deficit Disorder, a truly
memorable vacation, and part of the solution for bringing an
endangered sea turtle back from the brink of extinction.
by Wallace J. Nichols
www.wallacejnichols.org
Read more in this issue.
Neil Ever Osborne Photography
 Tumbled for decades by salt water, sand, and tide,
sea glass becomes perfected: frosted and
smoothed. The forces of ocean and elements
interact with the the glass, once discarded as trash,
to create valuable jewels of the sea –– valued
sentimentally by those who comb the beaches
finding them, and valued commercially as gems in
their own right.
The smoothness is “soulful and calming” sea glass
jewelry artist Danielle Renée Mullen says. “We get
tossed and we get tumbled, we get tossed and we
get tumbled. With all our hardships –– inside, our
soul, how are we perfected?”
Mimi, her paternal grandmother, a mother of ten
children, purchased a camp near the mouth of
Massachusetts’ Merrimack River where the
undertow and currents are rugged. There, first on
Seabrook Beach and later on Salisbury Beach,
Danielle and her nine sisters and brothers played
during the 1960s. With their grandmother, they
combed the beach for treasures. Their findings found
a home in their grandmother’s humble beach
abode. A lobster trap served as a coffee table. A fish
net hung on the wall held shells and, of course, sea
glass. Dumped overboard from Newburyport’s deep
fishing boats, bottles and glassware had been tossed
and tumbled to shore through time.
Grandmother Mimi knew how to make something
beautiful from nothing special. Their summertime
ramblings and discoveries on the beach made a
lasting impression upon Danielle . . .
by Diane Buccheri
Read more in this issue.
Jewelry By Danielle Renee
I am focusing on the dark, cobalt blue ripples of relentless wind shear. Each time they appear, I lean forward in
my kayak. With a death grip on my paddle, I brace for the impending slam. A constant northwest wind howls
over Channel Islands National Park, off Santa Barbara, California, which gains in intensity as it funnels through
each drainage canyon. The wind shear ripples like a bait ball of sleek silverfish breaching the surface. Each time
a gust hits, my paddle is nearly ripped from my grip as the sea threatens to capsize me. I fight to stay on course ––
Jolla Vieja Canyon –– located on the backside of Santa Rosa Island.
A quarter mile behind me, my friend Craig Fernandez labors in the heaving gusts. “We’re almost there,” I whisper
to myself. I am thinking about what to do . . . Do I wait for him and lose my momentum? He appears to be
making progress so I press on, repeatedly glancing over my right shoulder, keeping him in my sights.
Then, the cobbled shore of Jolla Vieja appears on the immediate horizon. I aim for the cove, turn into the wind
and paddle like hell for shore.Craig follows suit. Sapped of most of our strength after the arduous 14-mile paddle,
the cattailed arroyo offers a natural wind block. Getting there means rest, and a sip from a fresh water spring.
After reaching the only patch of sand, I wave Craig in through a narrow channel. Craig comes in, avoiding the
cresting waves on both sides of him. Once out of his boat, blood will flow into his cold, stiffened legs. Forget about
weather radios and late night weather forecasts. This unique archipelago has its own microclimate, which makes
navigating these islands challenging. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. To enjoy its beauty, I accept its
challenges.
This area is one of the most exposed sections that we’ll experience during our 175 mile circumnavigation. In the
past, I completed 1 solo circumnavigation of the 4 northern islands and several others with 2 friends I convinced
to paddle with me. Many of the trips have been pleasurable, easy paddles where I have my feet up on the port
and starboard sides of my kayak, as favorable currents carry me to yet another deserted cove. Other occasions
have presented me with gale force winds, dense fog, and rogue waves breaking on reefs over shark infested
waters.
But the Channel Islands are rugged and breathtaking, an area steeped in natural history, always beckoning me
to come back and discover more . . .
by Chuck Graham
Read more in this issue.
Chuck Graham Photography
Ears flat, the pink of the inside of his exploding nostrils spluttering like a seashell,
he was drowning.
What would we do? Wait for the body to wash ashore or would it just sink, and
how would I explain a missing horse? Mouse floundered in the surf, as waves
churned foam in his eyes.
Then he started to swim. Pounding the water, gripping with teach and muscle
and fear to life. I would feel the push and surge of the dark water pass me as
we both started to cut through the sea.
We were headed out, away from land.
“Help me” as I held on to a frantic Mouse.
I had to turn him into shore. I pulled on the rein; the pressure turned the
pounding barrel of the swimming horse. But as a wave swung over us slowly,
like a sailboat at summer camp, Mouse began to capsize.
He started to slip to the right. With no yaw in his leg movements, and his rotund
body, Mouse was tipping over like timber.
Terror in his eyes and another wave coming, my cold skin prickled with fear, I
had to do something. Why shouldn’t a horse work like a small sailboat? So I
slipped off the left hand side of him, holding onto his straggled mane. Using
my weight, I pulled him straight as he completed the turn.
Now, faced directly to shore, he focused. He pounded for his life out of this
water. I held onto him like he was an orca whale, slipping through the surf.
by Amy Bernays
www.bernays.moonfruit.com
And more!
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