Nearly 22 years ago I made my first scuba dives in Summersville Lake in West Virginia. I’ve made hundreds of dives since then in some amazing places, but that freshwater, manmade lake will always hold a special place in my logbook. I often tell people one of my most memorable night dives was there, lying on my back watching my bubbles rise into the reflection of the full moon on the surface.
Home again
I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from writing this blog the last couple months as I reorganized and re-evaluated some priorities. But, I’m ready to talk about my next adventure—if you’re interested in reading about it.
Learning from diving
Last Thursday and Friday, seven teens were certified to dive in Key Largo, Florida. I have no doubt that is an extreme understatement, but, these seven teens were a bit different than the average teen learning to dive. They were all foster kids.
A friend I’ve known since elementary school happens to work for the program and invited me to speak to the kids and go diving with them. I hope the kids learned something from what I talked to them about; I’m sure I learned from them.
But these kids had a spark about them, and they were excited. I asked a couple of them if they were nervous about diving off of a boat – thank you Ocean Divers in Key Largo – and they said yes, they were, but they immediately launched into how excited they were to be there and how much fun they were having. It was a whole new world for them.
I came away from my time with this group of seven kids energized. They were so excited and happy to be learning to dive. Better yet, they saw opportunities and potentials. They had learned their lessons of responsibility and leadership. They had also learned to look out for each other. Was it perfect? Not hardly. My hat’s off to the chaperones, by the way. I would not have wanted to deal with those seven kids that far from home. But the kids taught me to keep focused and keep moving forward. They weren’t letting the challenges they have faced stand in their way.
Sea Turtles
A couple years ago, as I read through the umpteenth Magic Treehouse book with my daughters, I realized that you can communicate important historical or scientific concepts to kids—you just have to make it fun. About that same time, I also remembered that A) I am a writer and B) I make a living talking and writing about diving and the ocean. From there, it was a fairly simple leap to decide to write a children’s chapter book that my girls could read and enjoy.
I finally settled on sea turtles. Most divers will tell you turtles are one of the coolest big critters to see in the ocean. They are infinitely graceful and at ease in the water. They move slowly and majestically – well it seems slow. But if you get in a turtle’s way, or make it uneasy, and you will quickly see it swimming away and there is no chance you’ll ever catch it.
After the book was finished, friends arranged for me to share the book with the children at Seaside Elementary school in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The kids drew pictures for me to illustrate each chapter. In return, I spent an entire day talking to their classes about sea turtles, diving, writing and everything else they could think of. The pictures they drew became the art used to illustrate the book.
I have placed a link to the book on my website. Go to www.booksbyeric.com and follow the link from the front page to Oceana’s site. Download the story, email it to friends, neighbors and anyone else you think might be interested. Or, share the link with them. I donated this story to Oceana simply because I want every child in the world to understand and appreciate sea turtles just like my own daughters do..
Changing lives—promises kept
In June of 2010, I traveled to Puerto Lempira, Honduras to meet with representatives from the Association of Handicapped Miskito Lobster Divers. I wanted to understand the forces that drove them to sacrifice their lives and their health to harvest lobster.
Lack of empathy?
Earlier today, the people who produced the documentary film “Fresh, new thinking about what we’re eating” posted a blog on their website that I wrote about the situation with Harvesting Divers. The documentary film is all about our nation’s food supply and is well worth watching. They are also getting into the realm of sustainable seafood and so they were interested in this topic.
I was surprised, though, by a couple of the comments people posted on Facebook afterward. I realize that not everyone sees the gravity of this situation, understands it, or cares – but this was interesting.
- How can people working in this industry not understand the dangers?
- I do sympathize with these divers, but they are making the consious (sic) choice to take this job.
- For starters, we could reconsider *what* we eat, and take a different job that doesn’t involve taking life like this — yours or the creature’s.
- Know and respect the dangers… In any line of work! Common sense, too.
The problem is, for most of these men, there aren’t alternatives. They are fishermen. That is all they know. Many are illiterate. They don’t understand what happens to their bodies. Ok, there is actually one alternative – at least for the divers in Honduras. They can get involved in the drug trade, helping to distribute drugs to the US from Colombia.
I just thought we had learned from our mistakes and moved forward, understanding the need for safe working conditions and proper training. I guess not everyone sees things the same way. .
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