Becoming MORE environmentally, aware, from a firsthand experience, in witnessing just how B-A-D the oceans are, polluted, translated…
It was 2003, the Kuroshio Island Literary Foundation took nearly a month’s time, to sail around Taiwan, wanted to, look back toward home on the seas, to document the coastlines of this beautiful land, as well as noting the histories of every single port.
the physical pollution, the plastic bags, etc., etc., etc., photo found online
For me, who’d only begun to learn about the seas, that was, no doubt, the experience of a lifetime, and it’d, really actually, made me understand the various sections of the land, how strong and unbreakable the fishermen were, the life forces of, each and every harbor we’d sailed in and out of, the passions of the local groups toward environmental preservation, as well as how the oceans are, taking the raps of human civilization, etc., etc., etc. Now, fifteen years later, the Kuroshio Island Literary Foundation had, decided, to do it again, and, unlike the previous time, that they’d, focused on the histories, the locals, this time, the focus was on taking note of how bad the environment was, polluted by chemicals, plastic garbage.
This time, we’d, set out again, out of the port of Hualien, we’d sailed, counterclockwise, and slowly, that nostalgic view came again, like the Lighthouse on Cape Rich, the place where the eastern and western shores of Erluanbi met, and, all the industrialized areas, with the factories erect, there was, only the muddied water on the seashores, with that rancid smell, and the ocean tides, which, thrilled and shrilled us all.
This time, the organization selected Taiwan, they’d found forty separate checkpoints around the island, and, every day the workers on the ship took samples repeatedly, until as we’d, sailed from Chi-Wu, Taichung toward Penghu, did we all have, time to take it easier, to enjoy the views, and we’d all, become, so intoxicated, by the twinkling of the surfaces of the oceans.
On our return to Penghu, everybody kept their eyes, wide open, searching for the dolphins and the whales. Perhaps, it was how we’d not seen any of these large sea mammals on the western coasts we’d become, so excited, especially we saw that pod of bottlenose dolphins, and, all of us, fall into this frantic state of excitement, as we saw that pod of seven dolphins. But, why are the bottlenose dolphins making us all so excited? Because compared to the eastern side, the species may have been a different one that’s smaller in size, but due to lack of information, we couldn’t tell if they were the same species that we saw back on the east or not.
here’s, another kind of pollution, the chemical…photo from online as well…
We’d sailed all the way southward, other than seeing those huge chimneys with smokes and fumes coming out that’s made us all very upset, there were also, an assortment of disposed materials, from broken pieces of plastic, to plastic bags, baskets, bottles, slippers, glass bottles, motorcycle helmets, iron cans, fishnets………the list can go on forever, from the surfaces, to the deeper, into the abyss of the seas. Especially where the Er-Ren Creek in Tainan pours into the oceans, the Houjing Creek in Kaohsiung, along with the surrounding areas of Little Okinawa, and where the tides met up in Erluanbi, are all, the gathering places of these, larger sized garbage. As we passed the zones in Kaohsiung, we’d even seen mousse-like foam on the oceans, we’d, fished up an entire barrel of it, and, it’d, smelled, so awful. In the end, we’d, given the samples to the Black Tides to analyze and post the findings on Black Tides’ FB page, and, contacted our public environmental agencies, to haul it all in to do a full chemical analysis.
After the whole trip was over, the analysis of the water is another huge thing, just like the core concept of the sail around the island, hoping, that we can, get the results published, to bring about more awareness of how pollution is, hurting the oceans around us.
Using the Kuroshio Island as a starting point, head out!
Until we have this sort of a firsthand experience in seeing how the pollutions we’d created had, damaged the environment around us so intensely, we may, never be, fully aware of how bad the environment is getting, and less likely, to do our shares, to help reduce the pollutions.