Forget The DCW - The RCW Are Here

There can be no doubt that real-life heroes will be sorely needed in the coming days, weeks, years... For the make-believe ones are failing at the only thing they're supposed to be any good at: inspiring.  (They are even failing -most of the time- at their other super-extraordinary proven abilities: raking in the dough for mega-corporations such as Time-Warner and Disney -respective owners of DC and Marvel- but that is another story that we do not give a flying fig about, especially at this time.)

Where there are real concerns for what is happening to our ecosystems -and what we are doing to, first, and for them, second- there will be real heroes all right - and here they are: the Real Coastal Warriors. Here is their feed about this certain saddest of events, six days ago down in Florida (again), live from Facebook:

Real Coastal Warriors

Officials reported thousands of dead fish — mostly large mullet — piled up along the shore at Blind Pass and Manasota beaches in Sarasota County as well as Englewood Beach in Charlotte County.

Reports have it that beachgoers cannot stay for a second, for the stink is simply unbearable. The sand of the beach is covered with piles of dead fish around Blind Pass Beach on the Manasota Key. The Florida Keys are beset by red tide phenomenon at various times throughout the year: this time, it's at Christmas Time. What, with the tragedies involving children at Newtown, Connecticut, wild animals at Zanesville, Ohio and now mullet and a few other specimens of fish down in Florida - all manners of innocents, great and small, are taking it on the chin this Christmas Time...

There can be no doubt, once again, that *we* are guilty for this latest sea-related calamity: who else pollutes the Big Blue as we do?  Red Tide is caused by our not merely polluting but poisoning the seas - whether deliberately or not, this is a most hideous crime and someone has got to pay - now.

I would have included a picture - as striking as possible, you know me - but I am not a snowbird, was not in the area when it happened and do not have permission to use the lone pic I found of this devastation, since the pedantic staff of one Herald Tribune will not give it to blogs. (Okay, maybe they would - but not quickly. Truth be told, though, that pic, taken by one of their staff, was simply not striking enough nor professional enough: you barely see anything on it. Tame (and lame) images like this do not strike a chord with anyone and, if it was up to me, it would have been rejected for publication. The Tribune is different, though: they mean not to shock their readership into action - merely (and barely) inform them of what damages we are all accomplices to... Last October it had been seven tons (you read right: seven tons) of dead fish that washed ashore in the span of two days upon Sarasota County beaches. Southwest Florida must be blessed or cursed - either way, it is doomed to get all these signals that the sea is sending, as so many unheard cries of distress, alarm-soundings and such... Hesitant Trivial reporting is not what is required here - at all. We need a moving call to action, not run-of-the-mill journalism - ethical and all stuck-up. But we are digressing once more - and, this time, it ain't aquamusing one iota.)

No, folks - these are not the times we need to read what the likes of George Tatge, esteemed director of parks and recreation for Sarasota County, has to say about what happened - and the clean-up work that will follow. As a true George, he doesn't much to say at all - and quite exactly nothing of interest.  We do not need to know that the beaches will be cleared of all the tiny corpses by Friday, so swimmers and end-of-the-year party-goers and carry on enjoying themselves regardless of what we are doing to the planet (although this evidently goes far-beyond mere beach polluting, of course!)

We do not want to know about the implementation of the local sheriff's program for non-violent offenders who, whether they would have done so or not under regular circumstances in their lives, will help county staff out in the removal of the dead fish throughout the week following this saddest of events.(And hurry up, willya - the beachgoers need to have access to the beach again; before New Year's Eve, for damn sure. As for me, they all deserve the stink and let it stick to their nostrils throughout 2013... as a reminder of their own finite nature, too.)

These are the instances when we wish we did have some sort of self-absorbed sea hero (or anti-hero) to find the vile fiends responsible for this and stop them once and for all - so that they, too, can ''sleep with the fishes'' - being those that washed ashore on Englewood Beach, Manasota and Blind Pass beaches on the 24th of December 2012.
A Captain Nemo, a Prince Dakkar, any old rugged Pirate...
An Aquaman, a Sub-Mariner, an Aqua-Maria, an Hydro-Man, a Seadragon, a Piranha Man, an Amphibion, a Barracuda...! But none of those are available nor do they need apply, really - for we have the Real Coastal Warriors just about to go coastal about this...

And then there is the Sea Itself: what did you seriously think? That the sea would allow this to go on indefinitely, without retaliating?

No folks - no. Remember that the seas can claim back what is theirs anytime - anywhere. It has happened before; to better people than you. It will happen to you, be sure of it.

Luciano Aquatico Has Spoken!

Sempre Por O Melhor! 
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