Sea•thos Foundation

What would First Friday be without splattered paint across rich canvasses, soothing tunes from folksy locals, refreshing cocktails enlivening the room and a reliable food source of mouthwatering goodness awaiting you the moment you step foot out of the door? Well, at least that is how the Sea•thos Foundation does First Friday, and if you missed out, you really missed out.

The night, aside from the usual celebration of art and its ability to bring Venice locals out on the town, was dedicated to bringing awareness to the eyes and ears of those in attendance about the newly formed guardian of our ocean waters. With World Oceans Day just a shot away, the not-for-profit sought out to open some eyes to this hard-at-work mission at play along Abbot Kinney.

The event started off with the easy riding tones of the Venice folk band, Terraplane Sun, a five-man band known for working in perfect harmony, only briefly acoustic but worthwhile for any patrons lucky enough to be present at the moment.

The ingenious local artist and activist Michael deNicola made an appearance and was nice enough to bring his some of his latest and greatest ocean-inspired works, including colorfully sporadic abstract pieces and cardboard-based collages, as well as one of his highly sought-after three-dimensional recycled surfboard pieces. DeNicola has a past collaborating with Sea•thos and only continued to add to the nonprofit’s reputation for quality presentation. His genuine personality drifted around the room throughout the evening, striking sincere conversations with grateful art lovers and guests alike.

The night continued on with Acaí vodka-inspired cocktails provided by VeeV, the invigorating “pink drink” and freshly made mojitos with a mint leaf accent from start to finish, impossible to say “no” to, time and time and time again. VeeV specializes in being the first certified carbon neutral spirits company in the world, fitting in well with World Oceans Day around the bend.

The gourmet foods trucks that lie outside the doors of Sea•thos included the tasty Twist Burgers truck as well as the famous Nom Nom truck. Various guests sampled all three types of burgers available from Twist Burgers, beef, turkey, and veggie, as well as their delicious sweet potato and shoe string fries with their flavored twist seasoning. Nom Nom was on a roll with their popular pork Bahn Mi sandwiches and grilled pork Vietnamese tacos. Mouths were left with a spicy kick at the end of the night to say the least. Overall, everyone was blown away with the quality of food and service from both food trucks leading to a successful night.

Guests were sent off with bellies full of food, bladders full of quality spirits and satisfied looks across their faces as they exited for the evening, already with the mindset to return again next month.
A quiet buzz filtering the room throughout the night carried the crowd’s curiosity and anxiousness as to the great things to come from this newly bred group, a potential to make a much-needed impact in and around our fair town, to motivate change in how people treat its waters, to shepherd us from further polluting it and to restore the damaged reputation of our pristine oceans.

Sea•thos led First Friday as the talk of the town, showing people a good ole environmentally sound time, with a bright future up ahead. Its members are eternally grateful to those who came out. And if you didn’t this time, don’t be foolish enough to miss out again, as anyone there could tell, the times are only going to get better.

To support your ocean, Sea•thos and World Oceans Day, pledge the change we all hope to see.

Words by Matt Branham

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Written by Matt Branham

When you sit down to a nice, warm cooked meal, do you ever ask yourself how it got there? As you incessantly order more and more rounds of spicy tuna rolls to your table until you feel your jaw exhausting itself and your stomach begging you to quit, have you ever wondered exactly where it came from? Don’t be alarmed, not many people do. But these little mysteries have multiplied and thrived over time into the global seafood community’s largest monster: overfishing. And now, we must ask ourselves these questions, or the next round of sushi might not make it to the table. Ok, now be alarmed.

It has been said that the human mind treats a new idea like the human body treats a strange protein, it rejects it. Only now, our largest source of protein needs a new idea. Overfishing has become such a swelling problem in our lifetime that it requires urgent attention, sustainable ideas, with the help of individual education, proaction and government support.

Overfishing, in plain terms, is the catching and consumption of fish at a rate faster than they can reproduce, which over our lifetime, has greatly reduced the fish population. Currently, three quarters of the world’s fish stock has been killed at a rate too alarming for the fish population to keep up. And larger fish, such as halibut, tuna, swordfish and other seafood delicacies, have vanished up to 90%. If this were to continue, seafood will be depleted within 40 years, which many of us have the life span to bear witness to.

Large fishing vessels trawl the ocean floor, casting their nets deep into the seabed in order to make a bigger catch, only to decimate the ocean floor and discard up to 25% of their catch, amounting in millions of tons of sea life discarded annually.

Although things seem bleak, there are solutions, ways to restore our ocean life, and it all depends heavily on educating individuals to make better decisions when it comes to seafood and getting government supported control of our waters.

The government has the ability to play such a large role, not only with the halting of overfishing, but also the ability to create jobs worldly. Roughly 1% of the oceans are protected right now, and obviously ineffectively. Government needs to step in and limit fishing subsidies, establish and enforce Marine Protected Areas and keep a closer eye on fishing trade.

It will cost nearly $12 billion to meet the 2012 goal to protect 25-30% of the ocean from overfishing, but it is up to the government to make these changes, and thus, up to individuals to get the government involved. The increased protection would, however, result in more than a million jobs worldwide, which would only help to fix yet another problem that needs strict attention.

We, as individuals, have the capacity to change these conditions by making choices that don’t encourage unregulated fishing. By changing what we buy and consume, we are regulating on a smaller, but necessary, scale. As we reach for these new methods, education and awareness will need to play key roles first and foremost in an effort to slow down the quickly rolling monster that is overfishing.

Just as we are learning about effectively greener ways to live our lives by finding alternative sources for gasoline, people need to evolve further and educate themselves about the right and wrong choices when it comes to their seafood. We have slowly become more of paperless society in order to save tree life, and just the same, we must become more conscious about saving sea life.

Look at every living thing as an important piece of creation, the world we have grown to know and love. See a destitute world underwater crying out for help and respond as a responsible piece of that same creation. Remember that we are responsible to make the change that we hope to see.

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