Header image portrays Dr. Bob Sluka diving at Alexander Springs, in Florida.
ARUSA’s Lead Scientist in Marine Conservation, Dr. Robert Sluka, introduces his new book, A Brevard County Almanac.
Meditation on Water
The Indian River Lagoon and Canaveral National Seashore were surprises to me. When I moved to Brevard County, Florida, in 2017, I found the Atlantic beaches a place of solace and learning. The lagoon delighted with amazing creatures and opportunities to connect with many local conservationists.
I wrote A Brevard County Almanac: Meditations on Sea, Shore, and Sacred Life in the Indian River Lagoon as a journal of sorts. In the style of a natural history, the book relates experiences that guests, interns, university groups, local conservationists, and I have shared over the past nine years. These experiences are structured so that the reader can explore how to love and live out conservation commitments in a specific place.
For me, learning to live out conservation focused on Titusville, Florida, and its surrounding habitats and ecosystems, including many incredible creatures such as sea turtles, manatees, alligators, dolphins, and bioluminescent plankton. I am not the first to write about this region, so I look at this place and these creatures through the eyes of a couple of explorers who came to Florida and experienced what was here long ago: John Muir and William Bartram. They were also people of faith, and in their writings integrated that faith with their scientific observations.
Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs Spawning. Taken by former ARUSA intern Nick Davis near Titusville, FL.
Ripple Effect of a Sea Ethic
The final quarter of the book develops a sea ethic in the spirit of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic. Through the lens of my Christian faith, and by experimenting in contemplative, experiential practices like gratitude, contentment, and lament, I develop a framework for loving our places more fully.
Through these practices, I learned to love Orlando Wetlands Park. To love Titusville. Even to love the mint that grows in Titusville (though it’s hard to believe I could love anything that’s not a sea creature)! And, of course, to love the beaches of Canaveral National Seashore.
In retrospect, my experiences of the past nine years were filtered through a set of concepts and engaged with through a set of practices, which resulted in a love for this place. This book might not have formed had I not purposely looked at those years through these lenses.
It could have been easy to copy down my mental scrapbook of exciting stories to pull out at a party, describing an encounter with a manatee or bodyboarding into a shark, rather than dive into the deeper values that underlie my relationship with the sea. Filtering my experiences through these particular concepts led me to love, rather than, for example, to steward (i.e., manage, exploit, utilize, benefit from, etc.) this place.
Dr. Bob Sluka (far left) collecting microplastics data for the Great Global Nurdle Hunt.
To Speak of Love
Words matter. To start my other book, Connected by Water, I told the story of my encounter with a barracuda in Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, Bahamas. One of the points I made is that at the time of that experience, I had no words to describe it in a loving, faith-based way.
With my choice to follow a Christian faith, I have learned to internally describe my experiences in a way that corresponds with that faith. Love is a supreme Christian value, and in fact, Christian teachings state that “God IS love” (1 John 4:7-8, emphasis added). It is the very basis of reality – we just have to look and, I believe, train ourselves to see.
You may not come from that faith background, but I think that the concepts and practices in this book will help you on whatever journey you are on to develop a sea ethic. If you read, engage, and implement the ideas in A Brevard County Almanac, you will better understand hopeful conservation in this part of Florida. You certainly will want to visit, and you may just catch a glimpse of the sacred in your place.
Available in paperback and Kindle here.
The Indian River Lagoon of Florida.
Add a Comment