Bringing Ocean Home

The longest-established scuba diving magazine in North America

February 2007

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FUTURE OCEANS

BRINGING THE OCEAN HOME

BY JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU

Coral specimens like this command high prices in antique and interior design stores. This bleached piece sells for USD$225. Photo: Sarah Ettman-Sterner, Ocean Futures Society.

I am a most fortunate person; wherever I go I’m usually above, below, or at the edge of the sea. My whirlwind travels connect me to parents and their children embarking or completing a vacation centered on the ocean. How many of us have delighted young ones with a beachcombing stroll? Do you remember the simple pleasure of teaching your child to listen for the sound of the sea while gently tucking a shell against their ear?

Good memories of treasured family times come to mind when we look around our homes and see what we’ve collected. It’s our way of bringing the ocean home.

But what if every person did this? It’s hard to imagine a beach, tide pool or reef devoid of sea stars, scallops, clams and whelks…and coral. This may someday be a reality if we don’t understand and protect what we love.

Marine life represents some of the most colourful and exotic forms of nature’s artwork. It’s no wonder that dried ocean life is becoming increasingly popular for use in interior design schemes. When you leaf through home décor magazines, it doesn’t take long to find images of beach-themed rooms with snow-white coral artfully arranged as a tabletop sculptural display. The average consumer does not realize that this is not how the animal appears in the natural world. It is dead coral, treated with

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bleach, devoid of its companion green algae that are essential for providing nutrients.

Nor do they understand the complex natural history of this animal. Corals have it tough; they must constantly compete with other sessile creatures for food, space and light. If conditions are right, they grow slowly and can live many years. Corals create the calcium carbonate foundation that supports an entire reef ecosystem, the ‘city under the sea.’ Little do people realize that removing live coral, conchs, sand dollars, sea stars, and other invertebrate life leads to a slow death by a thousand cuts for our coral reefs. Its beauty is also its downfall.

Tyler Smith of the University of the Virgin Islands, one of the researchers attending NOAA’s U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in October 2006, noted that Caribbean coral loss in 2005 supports predictions that in the next 25 years, 60 per cent of the world’s coral could die. The causes are many and include global warming and habitat degradation.

Anything we can do to reduce damage to reefs and other marine ecosystems is a step in the right direction. Paul Valentich-Scott, Curator of Malacology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, puts things in perspective. “It’s time people stop looking at sea life as a commodity ripe for the taking and start seeing it as part

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of nature.” He points out that there are ways to collect beautiful shell souvenirs without harming their habitat. “The Caribbean Queen conch is an endangered mollusk famous for its beautiful pink shell and is the main ingredient in many Caribbean seafood recipes,” he says, “and while it’s illegal to harvest this species in the wild, it can be successfully farm-raised.”

The island nation of Turks and Caicos is home to the Caicos Conch Farm, a sustainable aquaculture company that is also becoming a major tourist attraction. The animal’s meat is used in local restaurants and exported. In captivity, its shell grows larger than in the wild and is sold in gift shops and for home décor. “This fishery is a perfect example of sustainable practices that result in good economics: jobs for local people as well as a sustainable food source and a way to safeguard the ocean,” Valentich-Scott said.

Purchasing shells from mariculture businesses is just one of several innovative options for enhancing home décor.

Major aquariums around the world and home aquarium hobbyists have also taken the lead by successfully turning to synthetic marine life to create life-like environments for their displays. Excellent replicas of corals, sea fans and other species are available for use in interior design. They last longer, don’t degrade over time and don’t produce an unpleasant odor.

One of the leaders in creating synthetic, yet amazingly realistic, ocean life is Rock and Waterscape Systems in Irvine, California. This group is responsible for creating dramatic and realistic ocean environments for major hotels, resort attractions and public aquariums. Their artistry creates a calming, serene atmosphere in building lobbies and hospitals. They also give back to the environment by finding ways to educate consumers. Rock and Waterscape has now joined those of us at Ocean Futures Society in our global program called Sustainable Reefs, an education and awareness-building initiative for coastal and island nations with coral reefs in peril. Their educational and entertaining materials will become part of our program to engage young people in thinking about the value of reefs and, with an understanding of basic ecological principles, they will become better stewards of their coral reef resources.

Marine life is worth far more to us alive than dried and dead. In the case of the growing trend of using it to decorate our homes, ignorance is not bliss. We can do better. Human beings have the capacity to learn, process information and change behaviours. And there is no time to waste. When you protect the ocean, you protect yourself.

A popular trend in commercial and home décor is to beautify living spaces with authentic-looking marine life elements. Photos: Sarah Ettman-Sterner, Ocean Futures Society.

Colourful and realistic in appearance, this coral reef table display is made of synthetic materials and is an alternative to dried specimens taken from the sea. Photo: Rock and Waterscape Systems, Irvine, CA.

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