In my last post I showed how language often fails us; how often word definitions remain vague, cloudy - even after digging into their roots, prefixes and suffixes.  The whole notion of marine “wilderness” is even more cloudy.

Anyone who has been to the edge of an ocean experiences the sense of vastness - the sense of size and scope compared to oneself.  Hundreds of poets use the ocean as a metaphor for danger.  The ocean is flat out inhospitable, deserted, mysterious, always threatening, and contains all sorts of creatures that can kill you or bring you harm.  

The phrase “untrammeled by man,” un-ruined, a place where man is but a visitor, applies and yet doesn’t apply to the ocean.  Everyday, tens of thousands of ships ply the sea, often throwing waste overboard - even when maritime law tells them not to.  Offshore oil and gas development goes on daily - again spewing waste into the oceanic environment.  Commercial and domestic fishing continues to mine the seas and the seashores.  So the notion of an area “untrammeled by man” simply doesn’t apply.

I personally do not see the oceans as “wilderness” areas.  Many marine writers - in trying to draw attention to the damage being done to the oceans - slip in the word “wilderness” to draw attention to it.  But the oceans are not “wilderness” areas.  Wildernesses must remain those few remaining places where man is but a temporary visitor.  He doesn’t ply them; he doesn’t work them; he doesn’t use them in order to survive - except perhaps as a psychological tool.

However, if marine scientists, marine writers, get some benefit out of calling parts of the oceans “wilderness,” so be it.  There are many parts of the ocean now designated “a protected area.”  After the Great Barrier Reef in Australia was declared “a protected marine park,” it almost immediately started to improve.   Now we have the Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve.  Some 340,000 sq. km, second only to the Great Barrier Reef, Man is actually beginning the process of helping these important ecosystems recover from human abuses.  

Millions of pounds of debris have been removed.  From old fishing nets, plastic things of every description, which of course merely treat the outward manifestations of human ignorance.  Some of these places are the last refuge for many marine species, some of which are not only endangered, but on the verge of extinction.  The entire population of Hawaiian monk seals is found in the new reserve.  It also contains 65% of all coral reefs in U.S. waters.  Under the Wilderness Act, agencies are required to conduct an analysis of whether a given activity is appropriate and is so how it can be done with minimum impact on the “wilderness” qualities of the area.  

Although I don’t consider any part of the ocean “wilderness,” if the Wilderness Act helps those who are working to protect and preserve the various habitats and environments critical to the survival of sea life, I’ll put up with the use of the term until something that makes more sense - communicates the actual meaning of ocean habitats and environments - comes along.