Birth of Man

(Or who came first, the Human or the Egg.)

I haven`t been around for a while due to personal travails, but things are looking up.

On that note I`m posting these images as I used to in my Random Friday diaries.

   As usual, I`m back on Fridays to post my coral reef images & to lend my small support to all the people from the gulf, & for all the plants & animals, above & belowthe surface.

I fear the damage will affect more the denizens of the deep, than the more visible surface land inhabitants.

  As I`m sure you`ll all concur, I believe this was by design, … to minimize the visible surface  damage, at the much greater expense of the out-of-sight underwater damage.

I`m encouraged, albeit minimally, of the renewed pushback against the mantra of “the oil is gone”, a magical feat, (read, pack of lies) akin to the  (mushroom cloud from WMD`S in Iraq).

BP

   It`s Friday again, time to temper my anger with a sharing of some of my images from my reef tanks.

You may have noticed that my images are  often of a same specimen.

I liken that to taking more than one picture of your cat, dog, bird, lizard or child.

Every image is a close encounter with what one loves doing with the loved ones one does it with.

  I titled this diary  with “memorial days” not because I want to have anyone remember these specimens, but for you to remember the days the authorities wanted you to forget.

They want you to forget how much oil was spilled.

They want you to forget how much was hidden, by the use of toxic dispersants.

They want you to forget the harm they`ve done.

And they want you to forget, they`ve  been trying to make you forget for years.

Well that will not happen. There are too many who will always remember.

Just reading through the blogs, we can see that there are Gulf Watchers everywhere.

From  here,

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

(please rec them)

to here

https://www.docudharma.com/diar…

to here

http://healthygulf.org/

And to many others, we are watching you.

HAWKFISH

   Being Friday again, I`m here to try & keep the gulf coast on the minds of as many people as possible.

Lately I feel that the media is trying to give the gulf, the bum`s rush. We keep hearing about wrapping up the booming under the guise that booms do deteriorate. I can`t argue that, but let`s have new booms available & on hand, since this is hurricane season.

I will not be sold on wrapping up the gulf cleanup till they at least plug the well permanently, & keep monitoring the gulf for the next few years.

  Right now Bob Cavnar is speaking  on TV & mentioned the posters at Daily Kos, specifically the ones guiding everyone through this disaster  with the Mothership & it`s “Babies” (my qualifier)

He is also one of the people I listen to & believe, when I see him on the big TV machine, over any one else on their Propaganda machine.

  I normally post my images as distractions from all the travails of our daily lives in these trying times, but these are not to distract, but to point you towards what some would have you be distracted from. Please do not fall for that old ploy.

Even if the specimens I post do not all live in the gulf environment, they are the best I can post from these taken in my reef tanks.

Twilight of the Gods

(Shot at a friend`s outdoor tank around the corner)

Here I am once again & as promised  I will only post images of life that is not visible from the surface.

Many people tend to think that life in our oceans consists mostly of fish, crabs, shrimp, & shellfish, like oysters, scallops clams & snails, plus mammals like dolphins, whales, & I have to also mention turtles, the darlings of the  gulf.

What many don`t realize is that the above mentioned  species make up a small fraction of the biodiversity of the oceans.

In the following images, try & look beyond the main subject, & look to the backgrounds of the images. Every bit of color is a living  organism.

The purple on the  reef structure is coralline algae.

Every little nook & cranny has little “bugs” living in them.

Every little filament you see is some kind of worm.

The reef is covered with billions & billions of life forms, & I`m just talking about these numbers, pertaining to my reef tanks.The sand  at the bottom contains billions of  these per cubic inch.

Now these are the bottom of the food chain, but also sometimes the first to die off when the water chemistry is changed by even parts per billion.

When the first link in the food chain is destroyed, the other links fall apart in rapid succession. That`s why I post these images. They are not spectacular in any way as images, but as examples of the spectacular life in the oceans that the planet depends on.

Regardless of their microscopic sizes.

   As I previously mentioned, I shall post only images pertaining to underwater life.

Helping me choose these images from my archives, I have my good friend Coconut, a parrot I rescued many years ago.

I therefore will include him in the opening.

Plus I promised Ekaterin I would.

I feel the situation in the gulf is being slowly moved back in the pages of the national newspapers & the gulf is not in the collective minds of the people of the country as a whole.

 The pain & suffering to the whole nation will be felt for/in years to come, but the immediate stress is surely being felt among the people directly impacted by this man made catastrophe. Those who live there, breath there & wanted to die in peace there.

 These people are our brothers & sisters, sons & daughters, & mothers & fathers.

They are us.

Although many of these specimens imaged are not endemic to the gulf, they are nonetheless part of our  planet`s heartbeat, & will ultimately be affected as time goes on, no matter how far our planet`s blood, (the oceans) is pumped to.

 I post these to impress upon you, the life forms that many will never have the opportunity to ever see in the wilderness of the unseen.

 It bothers me that this was allowed to happen, especially when we can see the devastation we`ve caused on the visible surface of the earth, & which only is a 1/4 part of our pale blue dot.

 Another thing that comes to my mind right now, is my anger at the responsible parties to this mess, was temporarily forgotten today, while I attended a funeral for a longtime dear friend.

A funeral!! Damn, I needed a funeral to distract my anger.

But my friend Coconut makes it better albeit only momentarily.

COCONUT for Ekaterin

As I previously stated, I would only post images of underwater life from the oceans of our planet, which I`ve stolen a little of to put in my reef tanks, till the oil gusher is stopped.

That`s the least I can do.

I feel so much for the people on the gulf coast.

I want as many people as possible to see what is being devastated below the surface, even if it aggravates their sorrow at what is being devastated above it. The only way for the gulf coasters to be “made whole” is if all the damages are brought to the light of day.

I`m sorry for all you are going through.

I hope my little bit helps.

I live on the California coast, so I know how your paradise feels to you.

I`ll start off with a shot of my coast, which I will defend as much as I`ll try & defend yours.

BEACH NEIGHBOR

Since last week, I decided that until the oil gusher in the gulf was stopped, my distractions would be exclusively about underwater life.

I know BP has been distracting us all to keep our eyes away from what`s really happening, especially with the use of dispersants, which hide the extent of the amount spilled from the surface view.

What many of you may not know is that the dispersant in the water column, is maybe even more dangerous to subsurface life than is the oil.

Here is a series of images not necessarily native to the gulf, but you get the picture.

All this would soon be dead if it was in the gulf.

CORAL BANDED SHRIMP

Tonight a little set of pictures of one little fish.

The object of the posting is not really to show you a fish,

although this “Six Line Wrasse” is really a beauty.

The point behind the images is the different backgrounds of the shots.

This species of wrasse is constantly moving, curling through coral heads

& dipping in & out of nooks & crannies, but always on the reef face.

Taking shots of this constant cruiser is a bit of a challenge.

One has to focus on a spot where the wrasse should eventually be.

Then one should be fast enough to click the shutter

before simply getting a section of tail for a shot.

A few things: The wrasse is less than two inches long.

The tank is less than the size of an old “tube” TV.

Now imagine the size of the Gulf of Mexico.

There is so much life there, although for how much longer is a sad question.

To change the subject to an aromatic one,

I`ll show you a few shots of a few flowers from my front stoop.

Then the wrasse hunting begins.

STRING SECTION

HIGHWIRE ACT 1

HIGHWIRE ACT 11