World Oceans Day – BP This One’s For You

Today is World Oceans Day.  My plan was to celebrate by making several different colorful ocean creature cookies. I set aside a few hours for frosting, decorating and embellishing dolphins, sharks, octopi, manta rays, parrot fish, whales and eels. My plan was to create a cute, fanciful and festive post as well as an informational one. I was going to include interesting facts about each creature and throw in an ocean conservation helpful hint or two.

But now that it’s here, all I can think about is this horrible oil slick, those tragic pictures of oil covered animals washing up on the beaches and the grim faces of people whose livelihoods have been destroyed. My anger trashed my previous post plans.

I believe most scuba divers have a deeply (excuse the pun) personal relationship with the sea. For those of you who have never taken the plunge, there are really no words to describe what it’s like – the sensation of flying over mountains, the colors, the amazing creatures from the microscopic to the big pelagics, the feeling of peace and humility. It’s more than a sport. It’s a religion. I wholeheartedly believe if more people were scuba divers, the oceans would be healthier. You learn a respect and awe observing underwater you can’t fully comprehend on land and emerge fiercely protective of the ocean and deeply thankful for all it has given to you.

The ocean is not a grocery store. It’s not a garbage pail either.

But we just can’t stop.

90% of the big fish in the ocean are gone. We kill 100 million sharks a year in a brutal way, slicing off their fins and throwing them back in the ocean to slowly drown. (In comparison, sharks kill roughly 25 humans a year. Who should be afraid of who here?) We dump all kinds of chemicals and pharmaceuticals in the oceans.  Don’t EVEN get me started on the garbage patch. We cause pods of whales to beach themselves by conducting underwater sonar tests that damage them and throw off their inate navigational abilities. We still hunt whales and dolphins, even with all the amazing knowledge we have about them. And most egregiously, we let big oil companies with no real concrete or effective disaster plan drill in the oceans putting humans and animals at risk and jeopardizing the natural environment.

What right to we have to treat the ocean and it’s creatures this way?

The truth is we don’t deserve the oceans until we learn to take care of them properly.

By then, it will probably be too late.

So my rage over this oil spill obliterated my ability to create beautiful, colorful, happy sea creature cookies. They will have to wait for another day.

These are sugar cookies decorated with royal icing and fondant. Instead of a red circle, my first idea was to put a finger (guess which one?) over the BP logo. Decorum prevailed and I (reluctantly) toned it down a bit.

Whomever are the soulless greedy BP idiots that approved whatever measures, knowing shortcuts were taken and safety violations were being sidestepped and ignored, I don’t know how they can sleep at night. But then again, if someone can do that in the first place, they are probably the kind of person who has no trouble sleeping – ever.

I wish them all a nice extremely long swim in slick and blackened salt water with no one to hose them off afterwards.

BP, this cookie is for you.

Happy World Oceans Day you morons.