Rising Seas and Oil Spills (Thoughts Behind Ocean, Otters, Oil)
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) Gregg Chadwick Ocean, Otters, Oil (detail) 40"x40"oil on linen 2021 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 an...