Ancient Nautilus, Uncertain Future

I grew up in South India, which is part of the Deccan peninsula, listening to my grandma’s repertoire of mythological stories, rife with fictitious beings. One particular fable, that of Samudra mathana or “churning of the ocean”—a rare account of gods and demons joining hands to churn the resourceful ocean to procure the elixir of life—stood out for me. As the gods and demons churned the ocean, it spewed precious stones, seashells, the goddess of wealth, fantasy creatures with magical powers, and a deadly poison, before getting to the elixir. It was my first glimpse at what the ocean held in its chasmic depths.

The portrayal of the sea in prose and poetry, with all its zephyrs and tempests, painted a vivid picture of dancing waves on a turquoise canvas in my mind and added to the mystery of the ocean. I had to wait 16 years of my life to see it all for real, and I was rather disappointed. The plastic-littered beach and murky waters of the Arabian Sea dampened my excitement.

But over the past years, spending time on the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific coasts has shown what you sign up for when you live on the coast—the sun-soaked beach walks, the marvel of sea creatures, the uncertainty of the storms, and the perils of the waves. In my quest to find out more about life in and around the oceans, I bumped into Hakai Magazine’s website filled with stunning visuals and mind-blowing stories. One tiny note in the footer, however, stood out: “Made next to the 🌊 in Victoria, Canada.” I wondered what that really meant. Now, I know.

As a journalism fellow at Hakai Magazine, I experience it day in and day out. The view of Victoria’s inner harbor from our office window infuses our conversations at work with the charm of water taxis, opulence of yachts, resilience of canoes, roars of seaplanes, and occasional squalling of gulls. There are whales to watch and fish to catch, waves to ride as I watch the clouds slide, and lungfuls of free sea breeze as long as I please! And of course, I get to write about the plethora of life forms that inspire awe and wonder and live in the infinite ocean. My first pick is the native Dungeness crab.

With each passing day, as I absorb the process behind making the mesmerizing ocean stories here, I think my grandma was right, as always. The ocean is indeed a place of plenty—a wealth of stories lies in the abundance of life it harbors. I’m here to tell some of those, with mystery and magic, just like grandma’s stories. There’s one key difference though: all the stories I’d tell will be rooted in science and facts.

Spoorthy Ramam
Journalism fellow

This Week’s Stories

The nautilus’s lineage made it through all five of Earth’s previous mass extinctions. But can it survive the Anthropocene?

by Kate Evans • 4,100 words / 20 mins

The Pandemic Changed How People Buy Fish—and Small Fishers Couldn’t Keep Up

Small-scale fishers, often overlooked by government aid, were less able to adapt to changing market conditions than large companies. As a result, many lost out to bigger players.

by Brian Owens • 700 words / 3 mins

Could Human Pee Be the Key to Saving Seagrass?

Treating wastewater creates struvite—a nutrient-rich crystal that might just be the key to bolstering struggling seagrass beds.

by Jesse Kathan • 500 words / 2 mins

What Lurks Inside Shipping Containers

Seizure-inducing methyl bromide and carcinogenic formaldehyde are only some of the poisonous chemicals scientists found inside cargo containers.

by Chris Baraniuk • 950 words / 4 mins

One Great Shot: Googly Eyes

Wide-eyed baby clownfish prepare to launch into the world.

by Lilian Koh • a quick read with one great photo

What We’re Reading

India just became the latest country to ban a variety of single-use plastics, such as cutlery and ice cream sticks, in an attempt to curb pollution. The challenges of enforcement are huge but so are the potential gains since India is the world’s third-largest plastic producer behind China and the United States. (Washington Post)

July 2 marked 30 years since the Canadian government abruptly closed the northern cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, ending an industry and way of life that sustained people for generations. The date still stings for many of the 30,000 people who lost their jobs in the largest layoff in the country’s history. To commemorate the anniversary, the CBC’s Rosemary Barton interviewed former fishers, residents, and people studying the cod collapse, which has been linked to large-scale trawling among other factors. (CBC, Hakai Magazine)

Farther south in New Bedford, Massachusetts, local fishermen are bearing the costs of a corporate-dominated business model linked to private equity and foreign investors. The result is fewer jobs, lower wages, longer hours, and riskier working conditions at sea. (ProPublica)

In other fishy business, eight people were arrested in the San Francisco Bay Area for illegally catching sturgeon and turning its roe into caviar to be sold on the black market. Agents from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife caught the suspects through tracking phone calls, installing GPS devices, and watching a roe-curing operation from an unmarked car. (SFGATE)

Another stealthy fish operation just took place in Southern California: the annual grunion run. Every year between April and August, silvery fish called grunion gather on beaches from Baja, Mexico, to Santa Barbara, California, to fertilize eggs after a full or new moon brings an especially high tide. Researchers and students from Pepperdine University donned night-vision goggles to watch the glittering beach orgy—a rare event for spawning fish and one that’s being affected by a host of challenges from drunk beachgoers to coastal erosion. (The Guardian, Hakai Magazine)

You know what helps protect coastlines from erosion? Reef and forest. That’s the focus of a new study that puts a price tag on coastal ecosystems in the Caribbean to help steer disaster funding toward conservation. For example, scientists pegged a particular kilometer of reef at US $140-million in avoided flood damage over 30 years. And that doesn’t include other benefits like wildlife habitat and carbon uptake. (Anthropocene Magazine)

taken aback

phrasal verb to be shocked or surprised by a sudden turn of events. In nautical terms, taken aback referred to when a vessel’s sails were flattened against the masts by a sudden gust of wind.

Binge listen to our five-part podcast, Ballast, on our site or subscribe now through your favorite podcast app.

“To know the fish, you must catch the fish, and to catch the fish, you must know the water,” writes Mark Hume in the introduction to Reading the Water, a beautiful new memoir about fatherhood, mortality, fly fishing, and nature. In the slim, but rich and thought-provoking, volume Hume explores his passion for the sport—which started when he was seven and discovered a pool of trout “moving in a tight, interlaced school, collecting like gold in a seam, waiting to be discovered”—and how his life was shaped by the pursuit of water and the fish within. This includes sharing his passion with his two daughters, showing them how to cast, how to safely release a caught fish, and, of course, how to read water. Fly fishing, Hume writes, “is more than just a pastime; it is a place of solace, a way of learning and of teaching. Done right, fly fishing is a meditation; a way of questing after truths in nature—and in yourself.” Regardless of whether you are an angler or not, there is much to enjoy in this celebration of family and the wonders of nature.

Why have eyes when most of the ocean is so dark? For a variety of unexpected reasons, many plankton have evolved one eye, two eyes, three eyes, or more. And they don’t always stay in one spot. Discover more in the latest episode of the Hakai Institute’s Microworlds series. (Video length: 3 min 55 sec)

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