Americans have it all at hand and what they lack, they can afford to buy: comfort, technology, education and lots of entertainment. Entertainment at home, in the car, on the go, on the plane and in coffee houses everywhere. What Americans may lack soon is a truly sustainable environment and that, no matter how rich a nation you are, you cannot buy.

If a nation could personify the zeitgeist of our age of greed that nation would be America: a country where it all has been turned into an obscure game of profit margins and don’t ask any questions policies. After all, this is the country where one comes to make money. Like someone once said: you want to find corruption? Just follow the money trail.

Except, the entire world is now connected. One nation’s doom –or thievery- looms as a serious threat for the stability of geographic and far away neighbors. The collapse of no economy in the world is today provincial. We’re all in it together and never more so than when it comes to natural resources. They belong to us all and yet, they are being destroyed by our blind consumption habits at an alarming rate.

As we continue to consume products from companies oblivious to the environment, we also become silent partners in the destruction of our only habitat: the planet. Someone must say I’m not part of this. Someone must volitionally choose to step out of the vicious cycle.

Fighting a dignified cause to inform and educate, the Aquarium of the Pacific extends its versatile programming to include Eco-tours where local residents concerned with the environment can get a chance to swim in our oceans, snorkel in kelp beds and along the way, probably encounter the Earth’s largest and most majestic mammal, the Blue Whale. All of this while hopefully being able to grasp the importance of your personal involvement –and stake- in the planet’s overall well being.

This isn’t just a recreational tour, however. Three days long, it intends to help you immerse yourself in all things related to the environment. No, correction, it intends to help you immerse yourself in all things related to YOUR ENVIRONMENT. For part of the Aquarium of the Pacific’s invaluable help to the community is their constant attention to the literacy of its members and Socal residents about our nearby oceans and bodies of water, their animal species and the many linked factors that determine their overall well being and survival.

As the ‘smartest species’ on this planet –a self attributed and most dubitable title-, our race is obligated to rise to the challenge, to avoid complacency and to stop thinking that anyone can poke holes in the ship we’re all in without anyone else being affected. There’s just one viable ship in this entire solar systems and you and I are both passengers in it. We should behave as such.

Often enough –check the Bush entire administration’s environmental record for undeniable proof-, companies with enough leverage will buy corrupt legislation favorable to their cannibalistic practices. Often enough, you and I find out years later as the depleted or contaminated lands or lakes and rivers are suddenly brought to our attention by some TV ‘expose’. By then is too late and there’s too little that can be done other than pointing fingers. Instead, the Aquarium of the Pacific wants to help raise the awareness level of local residents when it comes to the health of our oceans so they can also be part of the solution.

And to show you the organs of mother nature, you must leave the comfort of the classroom. To that effect, the always innovative institution has launched their Channel Islands Eco-Tours in the coming months of August and September. Not only is the timing perfect for weather reasons but also, for migration (of the animal kind of course) and environmental reasons as well.

During these months, majestic and rarely seen species –both fish and birds- travel near our coasts, providing a rare opportunity to study their behavior, their migrating habits and also their overall health as a species. Taking into account all these factors, the Aquarium makes available to its members and the public at large this unique opportunity to come and witness first hand how your habits and mine will potentially change and affect one way or the other, many of these magnificent specimens and their environments within our planet.

Hopefully, as you wonder about in the many guided portions of the tour, an epiphany will hit you as you see a rare bald eagle lift off just in front of you, the span of her wings wider than you lying flat.

Out there in the open, underwater or above, you may grasp finally in scary clarity why your oil change should not end up in our rivers or drain system. Perhaps you’ll also learn why trash and plastic widgets aren’t as harmless as you thought they’d be stranded in the ocean. There are many more reasons to want to join this three day eco-tour and one of them is that part of your overall fee will be a deductible donation to the aquarium so that they can continue their outreach programs aimed at the entire community.

For complete details about the tour, please read below. You can reserve your tickets by calling 562.951.1664

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER

Channel Islands Eco-tour

Explore our Local Sanctuary

Come eye to eye with a gray whale. Snorkel through kelp forests and meet people who are passionate about our ocean and its conservation. Take a three-day all-inclusive eco-tour of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary to experience the amazing ecological wonders above and below water.

In August and September Aquarium members will have the opportunity to explore the coast of each island as they kayak and snorkel through lush kelp beds, home to garibaldi, sea lions, seals, and many more. Participants can also investigate the variety of life found in the islands’ tide pools as well as witness hundreds of seabirds—including the endangered brown pelican and bald eagle.

Blue whales migrate along the coast of the Channel Islands during the summer, so opportunity abounds to see the largest animal to ever live on Earth. Other cetaceans that can be found in the area include gray, humpback, fin, sperm, Baird’s beaked, minke, pilot, killer, sei, Bryde’s and right whales; common, bottlenose, and pacific white-sided dolphins; and Dall’s porpoise

WHEN:

Saturday-Tuesday, August 5^th through the 8th or

Wednesday-Saturday, September 6^th through the 9th

(depart /return Santa Barbara)

COST:

$775 per person (includes $150 tax-deductible donation to the Aquarium)

INFO/RSVP: 

(562) 951-1664