Tag Archives: Eric Paul Roorda

Week 10: Ocean Reader

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After spending a fair amount of time going through the vocabulary we use daily that is frequently centered around dry land (which I recall focusing on in the first weeks), it is only after reading the introduction of The Ocean Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Eric Paul Roorda that I truly noticed the “anthropocentric” mentality humanity tends to have and just how senseless it sounds when the ocean “currently covers 71 percent of the world, a figure that is certain to rise along with sea level” (1). This advantage in regards to sheer size that the Ocean has over land and with that size gap increasing should be telling of the fact that humanity tends to ignore and neglect issues whether economic or environmental only until the damage has reached catastrophic levels which at that point, the problem is either irreversible or tremendously challenging to overcome.

Now, this dilemma involving living in harmony with nature is incredibly complex because at is mentioned in the reading, “Humans interact with that system in many ways. They relentlessly hunt sea creatures, taking 90 million tons of fish from it annually” (3). The interactions that occur between humans and animals are bound to have more disparities than similarities due to the evident power dynamic, but this is not to say that there is no hope or that humans are the only ones that can destroy or “save” the environment when it is also mentioned by Roorda that factors such as the ring of fire and the shifting of tectonic plates can significantly affect and alter Terra as we know it, and that is something we as humans can’t possibly control.

Week 10: Oceanic Thinking

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Eric Paul Roorda reconceptualizes the watery world and our interaction with it in an ocean-centric perspective, in The Ocean Reader: Theory, Culture, Politics, “Introduction.” One of the main tenets that we have become familiar with in our class in respect to the Ocean, when discussing blue humanities, is acknowledging the fact that the Ocean has a history, that is ancient and continuously changing. Our own human history has encompassed only a small fraction of the Oceans history, the same way that the land is only a fraction compared to the area the ocean covers. This is echoed by Roorda, but what drew me in, was how he pushed the ocean centric perspective by dismantling the human imposed borders, and reminding us of the Ocean as a connected body:

“There is one big Ocean, and while its regions have been conceptualized as separate bodies of water and named as different Oceans, the fact is, they are all connected, and seawater travels widely and endlessly across these artificial geographic markers (p.2-3)” 

By explaining the interconnectedness of the Ocean, in a top down fashion (from the earths rotation affecting the movement of air and water, to the patterns of winds and currents that we have named, etc.), Roorda brings focus to the intimate way that we are connected to the movements of the Ocean and the watery world. These movements which we have endeavored to understand throughout our human history; present in oral stories, science, politics, and written histories and literature, function outside of our control, and affect our daily life.

Most importantly, Roorda reminds us that despite the majesty of the Ocean, our interactions with it, our use of it as a tool for imperialism, hunting, and industrialized fishing, have injured and altered the systems we depend upon for survival. These systems we have had a hand in harming, are capable of humbling and harming us : seen in the frequent natural disasters, storms, rising water levels, and recession of fish populations, which millions depend on as a food source. This introduction is a call for us to reanalyze, and revitalize our relationship with the Ocean, as a present figure in our everyday lives, that connects us to every living being, from the shore and beyond, and sustains all life through it’s intricate movements.