Transoportocean

An audio journey, created by Emma Laishram, Kathleen Dorian and Christine Stortini Narration by Kathleen Dorian

Gentle sound of waves crashing on a beach rhythmically, calm and low guitar string plucking with occasional higher notes underscore continuously.

Sound of someone inhaling deeply, and exhaling.

Take a deep breath… (sound of breath in and out)

now take another… (sound of breath in and out)

We are connected to the Ocean no matter where we are. The water that fills our oceans is the same water that fills our breath, all our body’s cells, our blood, our sweat, and our tears.

Water and salt are involved in every process that keeps us alive and every process of our expression.

Without water and salt, we could not think, walk, run, sing, speak, dance, cry, or smile.

Water is the most essential foundation for life on Earth.

All other creatures on our planet depend on water too, and more than 90% of them live in the Ocean.

That water that connects us cycles from the Ocean up into the atmosphere into rains that water our crops, becoming streams and rivers that flow back out into the sea.

The water that rolls over a whale’s back as she swims with her calf, thousands of kilometers away, is the same water that rolls over your hands as you wash them in your kitchen sink. It is also the water that supports the flow of blood through your veins.

Audible inhale and exhale

You are inhaling the Sea with every breath you take. Up to 80% of the oxygen in our atmosphere comes from plant-like organisms that live in the Ocean. The tiniest of these creatures, phytoplanktons, are at the mercy of tides - floating gently or thrust amongst waves while they create oxygen we use to survive. The kelps, stronger and more steadfast, root to the ocean floor and make up under-water forests that sway with tides and waves like trees on land in the wind.

Phytoplanktons, seaweeds, and kelp breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and breathe out oxygen as they grow. Some of them, like kelp, also form the capsules that hold our medicine.

No matter where you are sitting or standing right now, the Ocean is supporting you.

Sound of breathing in, sound of breathing out

Gratitude for the Ocean.

A gentle whisper repeats “gratitude for the Ocean”. The underscoring gently fades away to silence.

Let us begin with a single drop of water.

Sound of one droplet falling into water, it echoes slightly. Thunder rumbles, a new underscore.

You are a pinprick of water, dropping from the vast sky into a clear lake. From one large body into another, you descend rapidly, peeling through the atmosphere as one of millions - an individual tiny drop that will merge with a boundless lake, clear, fresh and calm.

Gentle thundering as if in the far distance, and sounds of rain falling - also gentle and atmospheric. A female voice sings single notes “bum-ba-dum”, mimicking the rhythm of rain, with a humming quality.

Time stops. In a place known as Turtle Island, or Canada, you are now melded with an entire ecosystem.

Added to the underscore now, instead of thunder or rain, is the soft lapping of water, as a lake on shore rocks.

A whisper Can I tell you a secret? Repeated and overlapped, “Can I tell you a secret?”

We originated from water. All living things evolved out of the Ocean, starting as microscopic cells, developing into amoebas that sprouted limbs and tails which propelled us out of the water and onto land over the course of millions of years. That’s why still up to 80% of our bodies are water and salt. The Ocean flows through us and out of us regularly, as water and as communication.

Occasional bird sounds layer in - a goose, pond birds.

We evolved to cry for survival, for connection, protection, affection and comfort, because of the response it elicits from those close to us. Water in our tears is what lets our loved ones know "I need you." "I love you." "I feel you". In the tears of our loved ones we recognize our humanity through their joy and laughter, or grief and sorrow.

The female voice singing low and humming notes also begins to sing chorally, harmonizing with itself and singing high soft notes.

Hearing the rushing of blood through the waters of our mothers’ bodies, our first exposure to ocean sound comes as we are just beginning to fully form inside the womb. No wonder we feel so at home looking out to the horizon and listening to the flows of the Sea.

A capella singing, lapping water, and bird sounds all layer together for 20 seconds of music that sounds full of ease, hope, and lightness - like walking along the edge of a small river surrounded by greenery and dappled sunlight.

The underscoring fades away as a breath becomes audible - inhale and exhale.

Gratitude for Mother Ocean.

Underscoring becomes simply lapping water sounds.

Now you are water filling gills of tiny fish as they flit from water reed to rock, finding safety in a sunken tree branch. You are the hydrogen and oxygen that feed algae which feed the crawfish that children hunt for with tiny buckets in the shallow brooks that flow East.

Now, the sound of faster rushing water, as if a large river, with airy and plucky guitar chiming in. A female voice hops in and out, with “ah”s that sound like tiny bursts of light.

You flow gently sometimes, trickling over rocks, slowly peeling away softened minerals from their surface and carrying them with you into deeper faster waters.

Your energy slows slightly, as you widen into a broad river. You idle through the long legs of heron, picking frogs and fish out of the water with graceful and swift plucks of slender beaks.

Overtop of this river underscore river animals can be heard - bullfrogs, heron.

On you continue, Eastward, pushing against the powerful salmon that propel themselves against you, climbing up the mighty river to find a place to spawn a new generation.

A whisper Can I tell you a secret? Repeated and overlapped, “Can I tell you a secret?”

Salmon are the connectors of realms. Salmon make an arduous and dangerous trekk every year from the ocean upstream into freshwater rivers to spawn. They are important predators in the sea, and important sources of food and culture to inland communities. The young salmon follow the flow of the river back out into salt water every year, retracing the voyage of their parents.

Sound of an inhale and exhale Gratitude for salmon. echoes

Gentle harmonic singing and soft plucky guitar comes to an end.

You bear witness to the movement of water and animals, between ocean and freshwater: a crucial step in nurturing the ocean's ecosystem.

Once again, the underscore becomes the breath of ocean waves crashing ashore, as if in the distance. The slow and low tones of guitar come back in.

Finally, you meld into the cold, salty, and turbulent sea, expanding beyond yourself yet again.

You made it, here, to the Atlantic Ocean.

Take it in. The expanse. The great wide waters that cover more than two thirds of the Earth, controlling our cycles of water, seasons, and climate.

A whisper Can I tell you a secret? Repeated and overlapped, “Can I tell you a secret?”

The Ocean is the great energetic conveyor belt governing our planet's climate. The Ocean’s currents transport warm water from the equator to the poles, where the water cools and freshens from the melting of ice. Melting into heaviness and sinking deep into the depths of our blue planet.

“Melting into heaviness and sinking deep into the depths of our blue planet” repeats, overlapped, as if an echo into darkness.

This cool, fresh, heavy water is then carried by deep currents back to the equator where it rises, light, boyant, warm, and salty once again. Remember when you were a drop of rain so long ago? You rose up from the light salty water, evaporating into the air, climbing to the tops of mountains to condense into cumbrous clouds before cracking open and falling to reunite with the water below.

A female voice sings, overtop of the ocean sounds, eventually joined by whale vocal sounds.

It is here in the Ocean you roil, bubble and run over the smooth skin of some of the largest animals on the planet - whales. As ancient creatures that have been here for millions of years they are wise, well-travelled, and know the Ocean better than anyone else. Sometimes fast and furious, and sometimes slow and thoughtful, these watchful guardians of the Sea play vital roles in the cycles that connect the tiniest phytoplankton to the most massive beings of our world.

A whisper Can I tell you a secret? Repeated and overlapped, “Can I tell you a secret?”

Most whales don’t have teeth! They lunch on the tiniest animals floating at the surface of the Ocean. As they migrate between Polar and Tropical waters, thousands of miles apart, they are the connectors of ecosystems and the fertilizers of the Sea. Along their journey they leave in their wake the remains of their lunch, which phytoplankton are happy to thrive on, keeping a trail of happy ocean ecosystems.

But there are other Ocean guardians too - sharks. Sharks maintain order and balance in the Sea: no other animal is allowed to become too abundant, no ecosystem may be taken over. The shark instinctively knows the harmony required for the Ocean to thrive, and so they are guardians for the ecosystems that provide for us all.

Sound of an inhale and exhale.

Gratitude for sharks.

On a humid day, you attach to the oxygen molecules rising from the breaths of phytoplankton. Sitting in the fog, you are breathed in, and become part of a unique, complex, and beautiful life in this coastal town.

There is a shift in the underscore. The rhythmic ocean sound fades slightly as the sound of a cold wind fades in. Overtop rises a female voice, singing what sounds a slightly ominous tune, in harmony. Complex.

Breathing, running, dancing, feeling, thinking…. thinking….

But what happens if instead of contributing how we should to this cycle of life connecting us to the Ocean, we begin to cause harm? What if the essential animals - the balance keepers - the sharks, the whales, and the large fish disappear? What if we take too many of them? Or infect their environment so they become sick? What happens then?

A musical interlude comes in over the wind and ocean soundscape - a percussion shaker sets the beat, and the many harmonies of the singing voice swell to create a feeling of approaching something intently.

One last secret - We have the power to protect or destroy. As we humans remove many of the largest fish and the top-most predators from the Ocean, the structure and function of our Ocean ecosystems becomes disrupted. We are undoing the sharks’ hard work and altering the balance - allowing the ocean to become overrun by animals that, unchecked by their predators, do not allow for the beautiful diversity that gives us food to eat, medicines to cure, and oxygen to breathe. With pollution, we also allow our seas to fill with harmful algaes, which in turn sabotage our beaches and coastlines and suffocate the sea.

Overtop of the ocean, and voices, a series of inhalations as if someone is desperately trying to catch their breath, to gulp in air. The sounds crescendo with a large desperate inhale and a deep slow exhale.

A shift - light airy guitar with soft, happier notes.

But there’s hope. As governments commit to ocean protections and societies recognize the value of a healthy Ocean, we can choose better. We can hold our governments accountable.We can choose to cherish and protect our mother Ocean, to come up with better ways to exist within the cycles that support us. And so we can protect the waters that provide every breath, every tear, and every heartbeat.

Ocean shore sounds, whale singing, soft vocal singing.

Sound of an inhale and exhale. Gratitude for the balance of the Ocean

Sound of an inhale and exhale.

Keep safe the balance. Keep safe the sharks, the whales, the salmon, the phytoplanktons, and all other beautiful, connected pieces of the great blue puzzle.

The underscore fades slowly, leaving the last sound - waves falling on the shore.