Whale Watching and the Protection of Marine Life
Jacques Yves Cousteau said, “A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it”. A Greek friend of mine once explained the phrase “making love” to me, an American, saying that here in the States, it is a term often implying the elements of a sexual nature. What he was saying is that it had to be looked at grammatically different, to make…make as a verb, to make love one had to work at it, much like Michelangelo ‘making’ a sculpture’, it’s hard work and it involves chipping away all that may seem to prevent that from happening, all the un-necessary elements. Much as the as in the rescue efforts for the victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the muck must be cleared away. The undisturbed sea is one of the most pure forms and for the tourists and visitors and business owners this sacred area must be protected. Many of the whale watching tours out of Spain and the surrounding islands keep to this tradition. For just as in Quantum Physics, watching an atom changes its natural course of action, humans on power boats have the propensity to change the natural world of the sea.
Surrounding the coast of Spain and the Balearic Islands is the Mediterranean Sea. This is one of two bodies of water that combine to make up the Strait of Gibraltar, the other being the Atlantic Ocean. Off the resort towns of Ibiza and the 4 star hotels Mallorca supports, there is a life that few of us ever happen to witness. And if we can not see and experience it, how can our human brains feel the need to protect? Until someones relative dies of a crazy disease, that someone doesn’t even consider the effects the disease has had on the many that were affected before. Or until an uncle is killed by a drunk driver, MADD is just an acronym heard on the nightly news. But when a son, or daughter or loved one dies, organizations are created. Humans must see the ocean as a son or daughter or loved one, it is necessary for the environment and the continued existence of the human race and the species in the plant and animal world, such symbiotic dependence. The Strait of Gibraltar offers up so much as it is two bodies of water coming together, creating a rich variety of marine life to be studied and oogled over and to be made love to. There are many tours, whale-watching and the like, just be sure that the boat you step on to is navigated by a captain intent on preserving and protecting those in the sea who have no voice, have no organization of their own.
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