The Day the Ocean Died: The Sixth Great Extinction
by sarah k grundy
The energy of a wave during a storm equals 10,000 nuclear bombs (NASA) and this just feels relevant as humans face their sixth great extinction and our planet faces a series of storms like we’ve never seen before.
“All life began in the deep blue sea. In this magical world everything is more connected than we had ever imagined.” David Attenborough in the trailer of his new film The Ocean. “We have drained the life from our ocean. I would find it hard not to lose hope, were it not for the most remarkable discovery. It was beyond our wildest dreams. If we save the sea, we save our world. The Ocean, our final frontier.”
I first wrote this article after 3 months of not being able to go into the ocean. Even being near the formerly soft turquoise waters and rippling waves caused me to become ill for days. Outside my door, the cure-all aroma of salty sea air that once filled my lungs with rebirth had been replaced with a neurotoxin called algae Karenia brevis coming from the ocean’s cry for help. As I’m revising this in 2025, six years later, it’s only gotten worse and clearer to many that we are officially facing our sixth mass extinction—even in our end, wars rage on and the health of the planet descends further from thought and goals no longer in reach.
Our new hope comes via a lifeline from the ocean itself—it may not just recover but thrive beyond what we’ve ever seen according to Biologist, David Attenborough, “The ocean can recover faster than we had ever imagined. It can bounce back to life.”
The sea spreads across over 71% of the earth's surface, while we sit on a wee landmass of under 30% (NOAA). The ocean holds 97% of the earth’s water. The salty sediments within the ocean hold the story of our origins, as well as determine our trajectory. Its outcome is ours for better, or for worse.
Containing coral reefs that hold our ability to exist in its salty hands, as well as cancer cures, it's not a situation where the ocean can die and we will survive. It just doesn't work like that. The ocean will forever be intrinsic to our survival. Surrendering to it is the only option. The big blue's force will always be greater and resisting her remains futile. Coral reefs, "the rainforest of the sea" or lungs of the earth can now be found as rotting skeletons and tissue. The rest glowing with an iridescent self-made radiant chemical sunscreen to protect themselves from their deteriorating environment.
The most broken of our civilization can be found as we speak slaying whales and dolphins, the parts of the sea designed to nurture, protect, and guide us says Dave Rastovich. Myself and countless other surfers have been rescued by dolphins from near-drownings. After swimming and surfing with dolphins, feeling the deep echo-vibration within from a whale’s song, their majesty leaves no questions. Honoring that is what makes us human. The transformation to restore has already begun and won't be stopped, but rather grow stronger like the tides. The sea will do as it always does, reflect everything back to us, even our weakest link.
The ocean brings us to another world. For many of us, the sea and surrounding sands are our own private church, temple or sacred space. There’s real suffering in witnessing pristine seas, surrounding a multitude of small, remote islands turn into sewage right before your eyes—the sea life inside laying waste at the hands of preventable abuse. There's so much left to discover about the sea and its inhabitants, and we will not allow our sandy shores to become a graveyard of evidence.
Sylvia Earle reminds us regularly that if we saw what the ocean looked like a decade ago we would see the stark difference and know it’s worth protecting. Some may say, that the ocean is mirroring the current status of our collective human spirit back to us. The Oceanic Society is even working towards ocean health through behavioral change alongside behavioral scientists.
The ocean that soothes our pain and takes us back to our origins is moved by the moon and her cycles, creating the daily advance and retreat of ocean waves. The energy of the wave stops at the shoreline, after interacting deeply with the atmosphere to become a wave. Go visit her in private, in silence to remember who you are and do one thing to protect her.
Sources: let my people go surfing by Patagonia CEO and founder Yvon Chouinard, The, Ocean Agency, Chasing Coral, Fish People, Surfers For Cetaceans, Minds in the Water, Surfer Mag, Billabong, Surf Dads Blog, Plastic Free July, Kali Ma, Three Stones From the Sun, The Goddess Circle, Sea Shepards
