This happened Saturday down in Katchemak Bay. Alaska blogger (and Alaska's most meteoric independent commentator - and soon-to-be statewide Television host), Shannyn Moore, from Just a Girl from Homer, was there:
Shannyn described her participation in this event at her blog yesterday:
Over 100 fishing boats, kayaks, skiffs and sail boats participated in spelling out exactly what we don’t want in our oceans. Acidification. I was so happy to be part of the “O” in S.O.S. To those who shared their shrimp kabobs, home made cookies and a glass of wine while we chanted “Blue Sky”, thank you for reminding me of what I love most in my hometown.
World renowned aerial artist John Quigley, who has done similar actions on land and ice, but never before at sea, said, “This message from the sea is a call for people around the world to join in a visual declaration to urge leaders to immediately adopt a treaty that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, stabilizes the climate, and protects the oceans.”
Homer, Alaska is a brilliant location to launch the campaign to fight ocean acidification. When nuclear submarines were proposed for safe harbor in Homer, the citizens said no. “Homer, Alaska — Nuclear Free Zone” bumperstickers are still holding together a few Subarus decades after the fight. Oil platforms don’t litter Kachemak Bay…Homeroids said no. Even the McDonalds has the tiniest golden arch of any franchise…Homer again said no. It’s not political to protect the Oceans, it’s the right thing to do, and for some reason, people in this tiny “Hamlet by the Sea” know their voices will be heard.
This is the kind of art-community action I adore. One of the sponsoring groups, Human Voices Now, has been and will be, creating huge human-body-based signs, so big they can only be appreciated from the sky, around the world. They had done another action in Alaska, previous to this one, back in late May, just outside of Arctic Village, on the shore of the East Fork of the Chandelar River. Here's an aerial shot of their action then:
Here's how Human Voices Now described the event:
People of the Gwich’in Nation gathered on the tundra in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Arctic Village, Alaska, calling for permanent protection of the refuge and urgent action on climate change on May 30, 2009. The human banner reads "Save the Arctic" with an image of a caribou in the center. The event was hosted by the Gwich'in Nation and supported by the Tck Tck Tck Alliance (www.tcktcktck.org) and 350.org. Photo by Lou Dematteis/Spectral Q/Redux.
And Alaska blogger, news photographer/interviewer, videographer, journalist and news aggregator, Dennis Zaki, managed to create a time lapse of Mt. Redoubt steaming away, as he drove past yesterday, on his way back from a fishing boat adventure along the Alaska Peninsula:
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