This week, I鈥檇 like to suggest two wonderful books to enrich an outing to the beach.
From a drizzly, blustery winter dawn, when the cold pewter sea churns under a low white sky, to one of our hazy copper dusks that tinge the sea with golden ridges, there鈥檚 something about the sea that lifts your spirit and just makes you feel better about the world.
A fabulous book that I often reach for on a lazy day, before or after a beach walk, is Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest, A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds and Selected Fishes 鈥� how does a fish become 鈥渟elected鈥� I wonder? I鈥檝e rarely been selected for anything 鈥� by Andy Lamb and Bernard Hanby (Harbour Publishing, 2005).
Don鈥檛 be put off by the word 鈥渆ncyclopedia; the book is great fun and the photography is superb.
It鈥檚 a beautiful, informative book about the sea life that resides in our waters and shorelines, with amazing names such as the 鈥渃urly headed spaghetti worm,鈥� the 颅鈥渄ishevelled sea-mouse鈥� and the 鈥渂y the wind jelly.鈥�
You will meet the sweet potatoes, furry hermits, goddesses, angels, 鈥渇eathered dusters鈥� and 鈥減erverted鈥� creatures that frequently turn up on your beach stroll amongst the washed-up, tangled, folded heaps of ochre kelp and crimson sea weeds, in the dark cold rock crevices and glittering tidal pools.
This book is a treat 鈥� it鈥檚 like 鈥渂ook candy鈥� 鈥� and I never tire of slowly 颅turning the pages and learning what might be 颅hidden among the elegant eelgrass at low tide, or lurking deep in the mud of one of my favourite ecosystems, the seemingly serene estuary.
One small but significant activity that I do on my daily early-morning beach walks with our dog Archie is picking up litter. 颅Surprisingly, there seems to be a lot less beach litter since COVID-19 arrived here on Vancouver Island.
The most common discarded items I pick up are straws, cigarette butts, 颅plastic bottle caps, and lately, masks and 颅rubber gloves 鈥� and of course, a few rubber 颅鈥渦nmentionables,鈥� which I use a long stick to retrieve. Sea birds can choke on these 鈥渦nmentionables鈥� and I cannot imagine a more gruesome demise!
I note with great appreciation the recent endeavour by several Indigenous groups, tourist companies, scientists and 颅volunteers to collect 127 tons of marine debris over 1,600 kilometres of our coastline 鈥� as reported in the sa国际传媒 on Oct. 18 鈥� in a $3.5-million project funded by province. The main debris collected was styrofoam, also with the 鈥済host鈥� fishing nets that float with abandon, entangling countless species of sea mammals and fish.
I once saw a photography exhibit of dead sea birds that had been cut open to reveal a sample of what they had eaten 鈥� chunks of flip flops, cigarette lighters and plastic 颅cutlery. That鈥檚 why I pick up beach trash 鈥� I cannot get those photos out of my mind. Oh, the power of art.
Despite the despair caused by ocean debris, my best and most comforting childhood memories are of the beach.
I remember sucking on a pink peppermint stick while sitting on a donkey that was wearing a red straw sun hat on a Brighton beach in England when I was four years old. And later, on a beautiful clamshell beach on Galiano Island, I recall playing with my trolls in a glistening tidal pool as my old Gran, dressed in her blue cotton Sears smock, sat in the shade on a log under the arc of an arbutus tree. The trolls were 颅swimming and I鈥檇 made bathing caps for them (I had 35 trolls) by cutting up balloons (which, I鈥檓 happy to say, I took home).
I don鈥檛 know which is more powerful, my memory of these happy childhood beach days, or the power of art depicting those birds.
Another book I love is Seaside Walks on Vancouver Island by Theo Dombrowski (Rocky Mountain Books, 2014). The author鈥檚 beach-walk selection is diverse, from a lovely stroll along Island View Beach to a hike into Cape Scott.
I take immense enjoyment from exploring little places on the Island, and from this book, I am going to visit the Trent River Estuary just south of Courtenay, walk the perimeter of Newcastle Island (in summer), just off Nanaimo, and with my friend Sarah 鈥� the one with a cellphone and a whistle, as well as a variety of survival skills 鈥� do the Maple Mountain Shore Trail in Duncan.
I immensely enjoy Dombrowski鈥檚 outdoor books 鈥� they provide such clear 颅descriptions, directions and maps, and many of the activities are very do-able and make a perfect day鈥檚 outing.
The sea is invigorating and serene at the same time 鈥� it refreshes our spirits, and perhaps we all need a little of that these days, even if you choose to simply sit on a log and have a little think or two. And if you happen to see a washed-up bottle cap, please pick it up 鈥� you may just save a life.
