What is a sea? Why is there a Bering Sea? Isn't the Bering Sea the ocean we call the North Atlantic? Wait, aren't the oceans also named seas, the Seven Seas: Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans.
So what makes a sea a sea?
"A sea is a part of the ocean that is partially enclosed by land." So says the National Geographic? They suggest you think of the Mediterranean sea. That's what got me started on this post.
I had a "but".
but The Sargasso sea is completely enclosed by ocean.
but The Caspian sea and the sea of Galilee are completely enclosed by land.
They say the Caspian and the Galilee seas are seas and not lakes because they are salt water.
but The Great Salt Lake is still called a lake.
Imagine calling every hill a mountain. The Eskimo has at least 50 names for snow. They know snow. We don't know the sea/ocean, and it's where we came from.
When I was a kid my family and neighbors always went to Rockaway Beach in Queens. The waves were large and powerful. Stronger than any person or thing I knew. I could ride those waves for hours; until my fingers shriveled and my lips turned blue. To be at the ocean changed everything. The heat and humidity were gone. No grass, no concrete, no trees. Just the white of the sand and the blue of the ocean and that noise. The rhythmic and soothing tossing of waves.
I know about black holes, super novas, the Hubble space craft, the moon landing, the mars landing, the controversy over the cost of the zero-gravity pen. Read the reports and seen a lot of the photos.
But what do I know about the oceans? What have we as a nation done to explore and learn about the oceans?
Between 1958 and 2011 we have spent $526.18 billion on the space program. While the amount of money we have spent on exploring the oceans during that time is not available. Most probably because there was no NASA of the seas.
Though we did have the NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ever hear of it? It was designed by Richard Nixon in 1970 to monitor Earth systems and predict changes in those systems. It included the Weather Bureau, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, The Environmental Science Service Administration and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries among others. It certainly had a lot on its plate.
Like NASA the NOAA budget has been cut.
Jacques Cousteau: " We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one. We must plant the seas and herd the animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about - farming replacing hunting."
Rachel Carson: "To stand at the edge of the sea..." She goes on beautifully but you know it as well as she did. If you've forgotten, see for yourself. Thankfully the sea is still around us.
