Since I was a child, I’ve been obsessed with the ocean and the beautiful life it contains. I’d eagerly listen to the stories my grandfather told me, where he swam with sharks – or survived close encounters with them after being shot down (twice!) in the ocean. If you walk past my apartment on a weekday night, chances are I’m watching some sort of documentary on the undersea world.
One of my ‘bucket list’ items is to travel to the remote island of Jefman, in Indonesia, and swim the quarter-mile length of ocean that my grandfather swam while stationed there during the war. Not on a Tuesday, however.
What I find incredibly beautiful about the ocean is just how little of it has been discovered. Man, with all of our technological advances, still struggles to explore the deepest parts of the ocean…which teem with life from the creatures which have adapted themselves to the deepest and darkest depths over hundreds of millions of years.
What fascinates me about this unknown world is just how close – and yet so far – it is to our breathing world. Yet, it is the most unexplored region in our universe; with more of the ocean remaining unknown than we have of our galactic universe.
What strikes me as remarkable about the sea is the balance of life that flourishes. Even the loveable seals function as food for the mighty great white sharks, and would be overpopulated if the great whites were to ever become extinct. Life flows so freely from the ocean.
I’ve watched several documentaries about hidden shipwrecks that now give a home to teeming oceanic reefs, offering protection from predators and a place for new coral to grow. Even the trash from these shipwrecks is converted into sanctuaries of protection for the fish that inhabit them. A wine cellar, with thousands of bottles that lost their corks, provided a safe haven for small fish. A rusting barrel housed a large octopus. Even the ghastly skeletons of rotting cars was refuge against attacking sharks for a small collection of grouper fish.
There are many times where life appears to be an arduous uphill battle, or it feels like a hurricane. What we can learn from the ocean is that life has a remarkable way of continuing to go on and restore – from within – the beauty that may have been troubled or damaged during a storm.
Featured Image From Deviantart
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