Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
There are five seas that make up what is the Ocean and the life support system of this ancient spaceship that we call the Earth.
The first is the sea that we most recognize and what we refer to as the Ocean This is composed of the different regions we have designated as the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic oceans. In reality it is all one connected body of water and thus one ocean. It contains 98% of all the water on the planet. This water being salt water is undrinkable, but essential for our survival nonetheless.
The remaining four seas are composed of fresh waters amounting to only 2% of the water on the planet.
The second largest sea is the solid form of water known as ice and is predominantly found in the Northern and Southern polar regions and in the glaciers of mountains. 1.6% of the world’s fresh water is locked in ice.
The third largest sea is under the first and the second, under the seas and the land and that is the water that flows through rock and soil that we normally refer to as groundwater. This sea holds 0.36%, the same percentage as found in all the world’s freshwater lakes, rivers and streams.
The fourth sea is the one that lies above the first and envelops the entire planet. This is the atmosphere which holds a significant amount of water. The atmosphere holds about 0.001% of the total water on the planet
The fifth sea is the water that flows through the bodies of plants and animals. We can call it the bio-sea. This water fills each and every cell of each and every plant and animal on the planet. This is the smallest repository of water.
And of course what all these seas have in common is water and water is the blood of the planet. It is the substance that transports nutrients and removes waste and it is in perpetual circulation around the globe in an infinite recycling process powered by the sun.
Water is the one essential ingredient for life and without this it would be a dead planet. Thus we don’t live beside an ocean. We live within the ocean and even more intimately, we are the Ocean.
This is the planet Ocean and the Ocean flows above and below us and through us. Each of our bodies is at least 60% water.
In the movie Avatar, James Cameron’s world called Pandora is a planet where all things are connected by a living force. This is in fact what the Earth is. A living planet where all living things, plant and animal share the same circulatory system.
The water flows into us and out of us, from human to trees, from trees to fish, from fish to birds, from birds to grass, from grass to elephants, from elephants to bacteria, from bacteria to humans.
The glass of water you drink could have been in the ground a few days ago or inside the body of a fish a month ago or inside a tree a year ago. In fact it may even have once been pissed by Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is an ageless substance, two simple molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen with a physical make-up that is almost alive, It even has a memory and the only substance lighter as a solid than as a liquid and this fact alone makes it possible for life to exist because the reverse would mean the freezing of the seas from top to bottom.
This immense unified circulatory system encompasses absolutely everything on this planet, constantly recycling in a process that removes toxins and distributes nutrients. Rivers are arteries, streams and rivulets are veins and capillaries, estuaries are like kidneys, wet lands are like the liver and the heart of the sun pumps the fresh water we need from it all, including the separation of fresh from the salt. Even the blood in our bodies carries the same percentage of salt as was in the sea at the time life emerged from it.
Water is life. In fact water is more than just life, it is our own lives for that is what we are, and without it we would not be anything at all, nor would this living planet be a living planet.
But what I find the most fascinating thing of all is the knowledge that this blood of the Earth, this water that is the planet Ocean intimately connects each and every one of us with each and every other living thing, plant and animal on the entire planet.
Collectively we are the Ocean and the Ocean is us. There is no separation, no divisions, just a flowing of the collective blood throughout us all.
We are Ocean and Ocean is us!
