Six Wonderful Pieces You Will Love This Weekend
Protecting Sperm Whales. Three Precious Chickens. Becoming Invisible. Our Newtonian Lives. Writing Children's Books. A Mother's Love.
Friends, We have six great pieces today. Five plus a bonus track, like turning it up to 11. Except six.
Please enjoy. — Ben
Thinking of marine biology has always been a salve for me, so I was delighted to find
, a Substack created by writer and marine conservation enthusiast . Amie describes Beached’s goal as follows:My aim is to create a single place where academics, governments, NGOs, activists, and anyone who cares about ocean life, can follow the development of marine conservation in real time. By providing all stakeholders an easy place to stay abreast of each other’s work, I hope we can foster improved collaboration and coordination and all pull in the same direction. Working together, we can reverse the degradation of our oceans.
As a child, three marine mammals entranced me, and they still do: the mighty Orca; dolphins of all kinds; and the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the largest of all toothed whales. The sperm whale struck me as otherworldly. It looked different (even funny); it fought mighty giant squids at the bottom of the ocean (seriously cool); it slept vertically in pods; its echolocation could find and even stun prey; and an author named Melville had made it legendary. I discovered him much later.
Dominica’s Marine Protected Area for Sperm Whales
This brings us to the present. Amie reports that the island of Dominica—not to be confused with The Dominican Republic, as shown on the map below—has taken the rare step of establishing a marine protected area (MPA) designed specifically for the wellbeing of sperm whales – the first of its kind for this species.
Sperm whales have a unique trait – their feces biologically sequester carbon, i.e. capture carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere, a considerable net positive for a planet plagued by global climate change. According to National Geographic:
Sperm whales dive between 650-1000 meters deep to hunt squid. When they are at the surface between dives, they breathe, rest and defecate. Their nutrient-rich feces – with iron concentrations 10 million times greater than the surrounding water at the surface – foster plankton blooms which capture carbon dioxide from seawater. When the plankton dies, it sinks to the deep sea with the carbon in it, thus becoming a carbon sink and helping to mitigate the impacts of global warming.
Based on a study of carbon sequestration by sperm whales elsewhere, and assuming 250 sperm whales currently in Dominica’s waters, Sala estimated that these whales could sequester 4200 metric tonnes of carbon every year – equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 18,000 acres of U.S. forests in one year.
In Amie’s heartfelt piece, Dominion in Dominican Waters, she dives into the importance of the Dominican MPA, the hurdles to be cleared to make it successful, and the continued threats to the approximately 300 sperm whales off Dominica’s coast.
This is a great piece, and I urge you to check out
for similar conservation pieces of outstanding quality.
They loved nothing more than to ambush humans for food. I soon learned this when sitting out with them on the decking that first summer they arrived. Beanie had already jumped up on to the table to make a bid for my plate of sandwiches. I swiftly backed away from the table putting the plate upon my knee. I hadn’t bargained upon the ever resourceful Teacup however, who leapt up and made off with an egg mayo sandwich! The three chickens tore into that sandwich like particularly fierce predators having just brought down their prey. A few seconds later and it was all gone, with three sets of beady eyes all turned my way again.
This piece is beautifully written, packed with photography and video of these beloved friends, and Amanda ties a knot with what she calls “wild wisdom.”
But this is also fiction, and it’s delectable, as you’ll see.
I loved this piece.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
He begins:
This post is about aging and time and running away and from the things in our lives. If you figure out how they’re all connected, let me know. I’m still trying.
Dee’s piece raises some critical questions:
If you are constantly running (“in motion”), which force(s) acted upon you to slow you down or change your direction in life?
When you (body or mind) encounter a force that is pushing or pulling you, can you really resist it? Dee reminds us in plain English of the limitations imposed by Newton’s Second Law: “Physics says you can only [resist] if you have the sufficient mass and force to counteract the force being put upon you.” What happens in life when you don’t possess that strength?
Newton’s Third Law states: “If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions.” Dee asks the reader: “How strong are you to push back? How deep is your denial of necessary change? This ain’t a schoolyard game of tug-of-war—this is your life. Isn’t acceptance an easier path?”
Dee doesn’t act as a counselor here; rather, he helps us understand that these forces are very real, as has has discovered in his own life.
I recommend Dee’s piece highly.
I drafted a children’s book not long ago. I didn’t know what I was doing — I’d just like to share a heartwarming with friends and their kids.
However, I wish I first had been able to read
’s piece, Three tricks to help you write the perfect children's picture book — a great guide for such an endeavor. Mark is a graphic designer and the best-selling author of The Shark in the Park and Milo & Ze. He provides great advice on creating the arc of a children’s story, concluding with the all-important ending, and navigating your relationship with your illustrator.Very nicely done and a great share for all of us who wish to undertake this fun, challenging endeavor.
And by all means, watch out for the shark in the park!
A great piece with just the right cadence and pace, and a perfectly shifting balance between mother and child.
Very nicely done.
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Thank you for your kind words about my story, Invisible People. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I also recommended that piece from Beached this weekend. A great read!