This book is available at
https://www.amazon.com/Connected-Water-Robert-D-Sluka/dp/B0DGF74MT2

Bob writes,

Early memories of family vacations to Daytona Beach and the Florida Keys sparked a desire to learn more and experience the vast and wonderful deeds of God in the ocean. I didn’t have the language to describe these events spiritually or even an understanding of how the ocean could relate to my faith. That came much later as our family embarked on an adventure that would take us to various parts of the Caribbean, the Great Barrier Reef, a remote island in the Maldives, India, Southeast
Asia, Kenya, and the beaches of the UK and southern Europe.

While this is the story of my experiences and only a subset of them, the subject of the book is the ocean. I hope that you get to know her more through my interactions with the communities, species, and habitats in various locations. I also hope to trace some of the changes in my thinking through time and take you on a journey to understanding a way of thinking about the ocean and its relationship with God including our part in that. I hope that you will increase your love for the ocean, God, each other, and yourself in a way that will cause you to actively participate in ocean conservation.

The emphasis is on the experiences, the places, sometimes the people, and the learning rather than an exact, full, and detailed account. My hope is that you will enjoy a trip to far-off places and a desire will grow to get to know better the one who made the oceans and all that is in them. This is my attempt to express in words my thanks to God, to tell of His wonderful deeds in the ocean.

1. A Rocha USA, South Florida marine intern news

Three intrepid university graduates in conservation science spent the past nine months in Titusville Florida actively working in the conservation field. The interns conducted microplastic, biodiversity, and horseshoe crab research that aids in the management of species and habitats. The volunteered with our local partners to restore oyster reefs, clams, mangroves and seagrass to the Indian River Lagoon, the USA’s most-biodiverse estuary. This lagoon is subject to significant nutrient input, fishing, and habitat alteration which is negatively impacting this ecosystem. There was also a focus on presentation at scientific fora and developing their conservation storytelling skills. They produced a StoryMap on the Florida Springs, contributed to A Rocha’s blog and e-news, and developed a reflective video featuring horseshoe crabs. This internship and work on horseshoe crabs was featured in a Biologos podcast which gives a great summary of the work here and also the spiritual underpinnings and direction of travel.

2. Marine Work, globally

A Rocha continues to increase the depth and breadth of their marine conservation work. One of our main foci is to work with local species and habitats of conservation concern. This ranges from the oi/grey-faced petrel Pterodroma gouldi in Aotearoa/New Zealand to Halavi guitarfish Glaucostegus halavi in Kenya to Olympia oysters Ostrea lurida in Canada. Habitat restoration work includes mangrove habitats in Ghana, USA, and Kenya as well as among many of our new Friends of A Rocha network country projects. Plastic research and conservation continue to feature, including at our now 40-year-old work in Portugal. A Rocha Kenya has had a year-long project cleaning beaches near our field study centre. Our Plastic Toolbox continues to be used within and beyond A Rocha to start new projects and to discover the theological underpinnings and outworking of plastic in God’s world. We are moving ahead in projects emphasizing fisheries particularly livelihoods within poorer communities. Wellbeing continues to be an important part of work, seeking to enjoy the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of being in, on, under or around water. Coral reef monitoring and several habitat restoration projects seek to contribute to our understanding and mitigation of climate change impacts on the ocean.

The Blue Whale, largest of God’s creatures on earth today, has returned to the waters off the coast of Spain after an absence of more than 40 years. From EcoWatch:

Since 2017, there have been four sightings of three different whales off the coast of Galicia in northwest Spain. The most recent was reported August 10 by the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI).

“We want to share with all of you the good news of the presence of the largest animal species on the planet and a symbol of the conservation of our oceans, the blue whale that one more year returns to forage in the rich Galician waters,” the BDRI wrote in an Instagram post.
…

Blue whales are the largest animal ever known to have lived on Earth, according to National Geographic. They can grow to be as long as 100 feet long and 200 tons in weight. However, their massive size did not protect them from being nearly hunted to extinction during the 20th century. They were protected beginning in 1966 by the International Whaling Commision, but have only slightly recovered and are still considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

In Spain specifically, they were driven nearly to local extinction because of whaling, The Guardian explained. There were a dozen whaling ports in Galicia itself. The country finally banned the practice in 1986, when the global moratorium on commercial whaling was adopted.

On the other hand, some experts are concerned that this does not indicate a win, but a problem with the blue whales’ habitat being changed by climate change. Read the rest of the article here.

Seaspiracy, a new documentary from Netflix, purports to expose some of the wrongdoing within the global commercial fishing industry. As with every situation, there are two sides to the story. Here’s a useful analysis:

The film includes all the damning evidence and dramatic footage required to make the important point that industrial fishing is — throughout the world — a too often out-of-control, sometimes criminal enterprise that needs to be reined in and regulated. In this, it reinforces and shares with a wide audience a knowledge that is widespread in the ocean conservation community, but not in the public at large.

However, overall Seaspiracy does more harm than good. It takes the very serious issue of the devastating impact of industrial fisheries on life in the ocean and then undermines it with an avalanche of falsehoods. It also employs questionable interviewing techniques, uses anti-Asian tropes, and blames the ocean conservation community, i.e., the very NGOs trying to fix things, rather than the industrial companies actually causing the problem.

https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22380637/seaspiracy-netflix-fact-check-fishing-ocean-plastic-veganism-vegetarianism

Dr. Bob Sluka, A Rocha International’s “ocean guy” (actually, he’s a serious scientist heading up ARI’s Marine and Coastal Conservation Programme) will be one of the keynote speakers at The Plastic Bank’s Season of Creation Interfaith Webinar on the Social Plastic Interfaith Revolution on 5 September. Information and registration information are here:
www.plasticbank.com/blog/season-of-creation/#.XWloHChKiM8

Here’s their description of the program:
Thousands of Christians worldwide gather together to follow the call to action to save our planet. This year, Plastic Bank is joining to launch our Social Plastic Interfaith Revolution. Our urgent call to action is for healing the ocean and empowering poor communities. This overlaps strongly with the teachings of all religions. Together, we can make a difference.

We kick-off with a powerful webinar on September 05 with top-notch speakers to guide us on our journey to put our faith into action and become the change the world needs today. We will learn what is happening in our oceans. We will get inspired by the powerful message of our faith and we can engage in impactful action to make a difference. (click above to read more)

One of the most creative creation care projects we know is in Baja California on the west coast of Mexico. Steve Dresselhaus stepped back from a senior leadership position at a major North American mission agency a few years ago to begin Reconciliamar, with the stated goal of doing evangelism, church planting, and creation care. They are having a wonderful time!

Here’s Steve’s latest note to us:

We are in the process of leaving the traditional church and have launched an exciting and growing house church movement with is attracting scientists, professors, medical doctors and other professionals who are the movers and shakers of our local society. This morning we launched our first ever web page (very simple). We do not need the publicity but I wanted people to see the link between our house churches and caring for creation.

These are very exciting days here. We get invited to do creation care talks in public schools, are constantly invited to participate in environmental protection projects and we have a full agenda of taking people to sea for kayaking or diving. We are choosing to take the positive approach to caring for creation. Instead of trying to scare people into action we are asking them to join the winning team. We are seeing some amazing progress here as more and more people are joining the ranks of those who care for the planet. Here is the link to our new page. http://www.reconciliamar.org/