pribilof

We are pulling into Dutch Harbor/Unalaska for the fourth and last time during this whirlewind tour of the Bering Sea. And it is both an end and a beginning for me. We came to the Bering Sea to bear witness to the world, to ourselves, to what is happening not only to the beautiful ecosystem of water and fish and mammals and birds and plants, but as equally important, how change is impacting an ancient people. And what a vision we had, looking and listening.

And because of what we heard and saw, there is no doubt what so ever, even if there was any to begin with, that the establishment of the marine cultural heritage zones is the only moral, realistic and honest way to the survival of this incrediable gift to humanity all over the world. This gift to our people, to all peoples, is a gift given by our ancestors following centuries of daily sacrifices, learnings, insight and fortitude to pass on to their decendents a responsibility we must not take lightly. A responsibility to cherish life.

Other ways of doing things foreign to our ways are no less critical to similar goals. The phrase "work with what you got" is always used to somehow limit our imaginations, I guess. But in this case, in the case of the needs of the Bering Sea, we have to be more creative. Without a doubt, this is the last place on earth that literally has a chance to be cared for and cared for properly. Oh I am sure that statements such as that can and will be made to try to defend our oceans all over this planet we call Earth, but for me, for us, this really is true. We can only bump up to a line which says, this belongs to Russia, on this side of the line, and this belongs to America, on this side of the line. And each will go to war to defend those claims. We are stuck in between those two super powers, powers that make laws and enforce them with vigor.

We, on the other hand, must create an atmosphere of rightness to find a balance between the needs for these resources. The question is; can we find that balance before it is too late, not only for ourselves, but for the Bering Sea/Gulf of Alaska? For after all we are talking about the same person/thing here. There is no difference between the resources and the people. We are one and the same. We too are critical to the survival of this delacate system. We too must be respected as worthy of salvation. We too must be considered critical to the overall health of our environment, for it is afterall we who provide the balance to the question of resource development. We are making the arguement, and that arguement is what must be heard. We need marine cultural heritage zones.

As we approach our spot, a place to park our Esperanza, our hope, let us consider our place in this tour. Are we mearly voyours looking into someone else's plight or are we participants to finding solutions to our conditions. We each, all of us, have a stake. We must realize that for we ancient peoples to survive, all of us must survive. For afterall, our planet we call Mother Earth is waiting and waiting patiently to see what we are going to do.

Until Next Time.

George