by Gregg Chadwick
"Every child put down your toys
And come inside to sleep
We have to look you in the eye and say we sold you cheap
Let’s confess we did not act
With serious urgency
So open up the floodgates
To the rising seas"
- Rising Seas
Written by Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil)
On walks along California's Central Coast, I often stop and peer into the swirling mix of seaweed and surf looking for the telltale bob of a sea otter as it breaks to the surface. The tap, tap, tap of otters cracking shells across rocks carried on their chests as they float on their backs in the kelp filled water also gives away their location. Sea otters are voracious eaters, clearing coastal seabeds of purple sea urchins that would otherwise decimate the growing kelp forests.
By keeping the purple urchin population down, sea otters remove kelp's major nemesis. Sea urchins feed on the holdfasts that keep kelp anchored to the bottom of the ocean. Sea otters feed on the purple sea urchins that devour kelp forests. When the sea otter population collapsed after centuries of being hunted for their furs, the entire ecosystem of the Monterey Bay shifted.
The bay's giant kelp forests disappeared and along with it most of the sea life that they supported and protected. Matt Simon in Wired's November 4, 2021 article on sea otters explains that, "Keeping the urchin population in check preserves the kelp, which is vital for the ecosystem in two main ways. First, the forest is a habitat for fish, which are the food source for birds and other marine mammals, like sea lions. Second, the seaweed is part of what scientists call a blue carbon ecosystem, meaning a coastal or marine area that sequesters carbon."
To get even closer to sea otters, I love to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and their sea otter information and exhibition space. The Monterey Bay Aquarium describes sea otters as aquatic environmentalists: "By munching on urchins, they help kelp forests flourish, and by crunching on crabs, they promote eelgrass in estuaries. But this marine mammal is endangered — and needs our help." The sea otter population along the Central California Coast has rebounded after being feared extinct early in the 20th Century. But a family of resilient sea otters were found near Bixby Bridge in 1938. Due to strong conservation efforts, California's sea otter population has slowly grown to the current number of around 3,000. A combination of legal protection — in 1977 sea otters became protected under the Endangered Species Act — and the efforts of nongovernmental organizations have prompted the sea otter resurgence. But the sea otter's future is still at great risk. Oil spreading south from a single tanker spill near San Francisco or off the pristine Central Coast would threaten the entire California sea otter population. With the recent oil spill in Southern California off Huntington Beach in October 2021, I was reminded how vulnerable our coastal ecosystem is to oil spills and climate change. Coast Guard officials determined that the spill came from a leak in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy that shuttles crude from offshore platforms to the shore. In response to this latest environmental emergency, I created my painting Ocean, Otters, Oil.
Gregg Chadwick
Ocean, Otters, Oil (detail)
(Oil Platforms Ellen and Elly Offshore near Long Beach, California)
40"x40"oil on linen 2021
As I painted Ocean, Otters, Oil and other artworks in my Fragile Earth series, I have been listening to the environmentally and socially conscious Australian band Midnight Oil. In 1990 Midnight Oil created a guerilla performance in front of Exxon headquarters in New York City with a banner reading, "Midnight Oil Makes You Dance, Exxon Oil Makes Us Sick," as they played in protest of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This week Midnight Oil has released a new song about our global climate crisis that illuminates the peril in which we find our fragile earth. This new Midnight Oil song Rising Seas has found its way to the top of my studio playlist and inspires me to keep speaking out, to keep creating, to keep caring about the future of our planet.
Midnight Oil – Rising Seas (Official Video)
‘Rising Seas’ Available Now: https://MidnightOil.lnk.to/RisingSeas
Join Mailing list - https://eepurl.com/cBpcov
Website - https://www.midnightoil.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/midnightoilo...
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/midnightoil...
Twitter - https://twitter.com/midnightoilband
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/72Kyo...
Apple - https://music.apple.com/au/artist/mid...
Production Company: Hype Republic
Director: Cameron March
Executive Producer: Macario De Souza
Producers: Michaela Le / Macario De Souza
DOP: Sean Ryan
1st AD: Murray Robertson
1st AC: Nicholas Jackson
2nd AC: Rebecca Wilson
Gaffer: Steve Schofield
Grip: Damian Heckendorf
Production Assistant/Assistant Editor: Jarred Lammiman
Production Assistant: James Elliott
Best Boy: Alan Fraser
Wardrobe: Simone Turnbull
HMU: Lisa Fulginiti
Featuring footage courtesy of Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org.au/
Full Lyrics
Rising Seas
(Written by Jim Moginie)
Every child put down your toys
And come inside to sleep
We have to look you in the eye and say we sold you cheap
Let’s confess we did not act
With serious urgency
So open up the floodgates
To the rising seas
Temperature rising
Climate denying
Fever is gripping
Nobody’s listening
Lustre is fading
Because nobody’s trading
Wall Street is jumping
Still the music keeps pumping
If you can’t decide
Between wrong and right
If you can’t see through
All that you hold true
Queen of the firmament
Lord of all beneath
Masters of the universe
We’re all refugees
And in many countries they adore celebrities
Open up the floodgates
To the rising seas
Dinosaur stories
Reliving past glories
Lusting for gold
F-f-fishing for souls
They said it was coming
We knew it was a-coming
If you lift your game
Put your toys away
Well it looks like rain
On that western plain
Queen of the firmament
Lord of all beneath
Masters of the universe
We’re all refugees
And in many countries they adore celebrities
Open up the floodgates
To the rising seas
#midnightoil #midnightoilband #risingseas
Gregg Chadwick's Ocean, Otters, Oil is on exhibit at Laguna Art in Mission Viejo, California through November 2021 in the group exhibition SOS Save Our Seas. There will be an opening on Saturday, November 6, 2021 from 3-6pm.
SOS Save Our Seas
Laguna Art
November 6, 2021
3–6pm Opening Reception
3–6pm Opening Reception
Featuring special musical guest
Bobby Grey and Friends
Bobby Grey and Friends
555 THE SHOPS AT MISSION VIEJO, MV, CA 92691 suite 928A
TF. 1-888-9-FINEART | Gallery 949-257-9008
info@lagunaart.com
Gallery Hours:
MON - SAT 11AM - 7PM
SUN 12PM - 6PM
Sea otters: Back by pawpular demand! Once hunted to almost extinction, these ecosystem engineers are slowly making a comeback in California and transforming the coast along the way. pic.twitter.com/zOwCfMs5cp
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) September 23, 2022
