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Halifax Dudes Set to Surf, Save World
Sunday, October 19, 2003 Two Halifax surfers plan to sail around the world to raise awareness about endangered coral reefs. Robert Buttimor, 28, and Brent Seamone, 18, want to start the four-year journey, dubbed Eco-Surf, next fall from California.
“A lot of people don’t think about the coral reefs and the role they play in our whole environment,” said Buttimor, who is finishing his master’s degree in food science at Dalhousie University. Around the world, the delicate underwater ecosystems are bleaching and dying mainly because of global warming. “If you go around killing off the coral, then a lot of the areas that are known worldwide for surfing are going to be completely destroyed,” Buttimor said. The duo is approaching surfing, sailing and outdoors companies to raise money for the trip, which they expect to cost $200,000. Once they buy a boat, the surfers plan to leave from San Diego, where Seamone is working in a surfboard factory, and sail to Mexico. From there, they’ll cross the Pacific, stopping at reefs along the way to surf and talk to locals about what’s going on with the world’s coral. Stops on the way home to Halifax will include French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, South Africa, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. In some countries where people use cyanide and dynamite to fish coral reefs, they hope to share information about more ecologically friendly methods. “There is a lot of destruction taking place from human impact,” Seamone said. Education through experience While he plans to continue his formal education some day, the recent Queen Elizabeth High School graduate is keener on catching the world’s waves. “There is no better way to get an education than life experiences,” Seamone said. “I’ll get more out of this trip than I would from any university.” Buttimor and Seamone plan to send information from the reefs they visit—including underwater photos—to the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a Massachusetts-based group dedicated to preserving corals around the world. “The fact is that people who are in the right place at the right time, if they take good pictures, can take invaluable documentary information that can’t be captured any other way,” said Thomas Goreau, a marine biologist with the alliance. “They could be useful both in developing a record of places where scientists aren’t getting, and where they might influence local people into understanding what’s happening to their reefs. In a lot of places, people have their heads in the sand.” For more information on the voyage, visit www.ecosurf.org. The Daily News A division of Transcontinental Media Inc. 1601 Lower Water Street - P.O. Box 8330, Station A - Halifax - Nova Scotia - B3K 5M1
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