Out There in the Ocean Blue

Yesterday I was posting about snowboarding big lines in Alaska, today I'm thinking about the ocean.

They say that the ocean is blue and it still is in many places. In other places it's a mess of filth and pollution with the water resembling a murky green at best.

I supposed it's easy for some people (cruise ships) to drop a piece of trash, a bit of oil or other chemical into the vast ocean knowing that for the most part it is absorbed (read - not visual). In fact, according to the Smithsonian Institute just over 60 million gallons of oil a year seep into the oceans from rock layers alone.

Here are some other staggering numbers:

• Hundreds of millions of gallons of oil slip into the oceans each year from non accidental sources, most of it preventable.
• 37 million gallons are from ship accidents
  

If that sort of quantity was accidentally or purposely dropped into a forest, what kind of results would it receive in the media? From governments?

Hard to fathom seeing that much oil going into the ocean. Then again, if you've ever driven the short distance from Pacific Palisades to Newport Beach in California, passing Long Beach and Huntington you won't have a hard time imagining this happening. Ever swam in the Hudson? Seen the waters off of Hong Kong? Yikes.

These thoughts surfaced while watching the teaser for Out There, a surfing film from Teton Gravity Research that is not only stoke filled but asks about the future of surf - the water and the land locales.



TGR has teamed up with various Surfrider Foundation Chapters for the Out There tour. I guess I'll have to buy the film since they aren't coming to Utah.

--image from Aube insanité's photostream on Flickr

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