Rasta And Crew To Sail 700kms Following Humpback Whale Migration
Justin Cote
- August 21 2009
- 600 views
- 27 comments
Surfers For Cetaceans’ Dave Rastovich. Photo: Hilton Dawe
Surfers For Cetaceans Crew To Sail From Byron Bay To Bondi Following Humpback Whale Migration
Dave Rastovich, Chris Del Moro, and Hilton Dawe to sail 700 kilometers following humpback whales in an attempt to raise awareness of the plight the animals encounter in a mission called “Transparent Sea”.
I just spoke with Surfers For Cetaceans USA Representative Chris Del Moro and while he’s excited, he’s also a bit sketched: “Yep, following Rasta into another crazy adventure. I have some sailing experience but the ocean down there is alive and filled with some big creatures and the wind can whip up out of nowhere.” Chris, Rasta, and Hilton will be traveling in specially designed 17-foot kayaks with a 12-foot sail attached. “I asked Rasta what we’re gonna do when the weather got bad and he was like, ‘Mate, just drop the sail and head in!’ so yeah I’m a little nervous but mostly excited.”—JC
In celebration of Rasta and Del Moro’s voyage, we’re giving away a big box full of Sticky Bumps gear including a sweet Tour Series Boardbag (1 board model), a Tour Series traction pad, a bunch of Sticky Bumps wax, gear and fin organizer, tee shirt, hat, leash, and even a Sticky Bumps candle. All you have to do to win is tell us in the comment box below to what lengths you would go to save the whales…be creative, be funny, and win! The winner will be picked in early September.
Here’s a synopsis of the voyage the boys will be taking:
Transparent Sea: A Modern Surfing Voyage With Ancient Creatures
For sixty million years the largest brains on Earth have swam and surfed harmoniously within the ocean. Today, industrialized man threatens the future of our oceans, whales and dolphins via commercial fishing, domestic, industrial and acoustic pollution, and direct kills. The Transparent Sea voyage expresses the surfing worlds desire to surf with cetaceans in an ocean that is clean, clear, and protected.
Noiselessly sailing and surfing within the humpbacks annual migration south our journey will see us parallel theirs as we hope to expose the human threats they face. With their newborn calves with them we’ll also highlight the majesty of these creatures that our oceans, and our world, cannot live without.
Our team of four will sail revolutionary new sailing kayaks down the Australian east coast through October 2009. Equipped with surfboards, hydrophones, cameras and food we will cover 700 kms of coastline with the whales, sleeping under the stars and traversing coastal currents. Stopping into towns that have joined the celebrated Humpback Whale Icon Project that sees coastal communities adopt specific humpbacks as their town icon, we will share our underwater acoustic recordings, images and experiences from the journey highlighting the issue of cetacean and ocean conservation.
Through multi media outlets we will be tracked as we travel from Byron to Bondi riding favorable north swells and wind. Diary entries will be publicized via leading ocean website Coastalwatch. Local print, radio and TV media will also cover our journey south highlighting each town that we dock into, discussing their iconic whale and the threats they may be facing. A climactic ending to the voyage on Bondi beach will also see our team join with ocean defenders the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in launching their 2009 Antarctic Whale campaign Operation Waltzing Matilda.
OUR MISSION
The goal of Transparent Sea is to celebrate our recovering whale populations whilst also exposing humanities collective negative impact upon the oceans and the warm-blooded mammals that we share a surfing bond with. We wish to educate the public, inspire noiseless, pollution free whale watching, explore our diverse coastline, surf remote pristine waves, reinvigorate the HIP initiative, and create an informative and artistic DVD/Book.
We will achieve this via mainstream and surfing media coverage of our personal contact with cetaceans down the east coast of Australia:
Three day internet diary entries via leading website Coastalwatch.
Print, radio and television updates at each major stop on the voyage.
Personal documentation of our journey through acoustic and visual recordings to be released in book and DVD format December 2009.
Meetings with local school and university students, life saving and board riders clubs, natural parks and wildlife services, marine protection agencies and coastal environmental groups.
CREW
Transparent Sea is a Surfers For Cetaceans project that will include key members of our organization.
Dave Rastovich—Co-founder of S4C, professional surfer and ocean activist.
Chris Del Moro—USA S4C representative, professional surfer, artist and ocean activist.
Hilton Dawe—Leading surfing photographer and in house S4C photographer.
The fourth sailing position within Transparent Sea is an open seat. Different legs of the journey will see different people take this position. Journalists, marine biologists, celebrities, professional surfers, environmental activists, artists, cinematographers and environmental scientists.
ROAD TEAM
Single vehicle road team will parallel our course as we move down the coast preparing media for interviews when we dock and supplying them with our previous days content, supplying locally grown food produce for us, downloading photos and text from our previous days voyage, uploading our content onto internet media, and capturing land based imagery of our team traversing the coast.
TRANSPARENT SEA PRODUCTS
The TRANSPARENT SEA voyage will be promoted via real time media tracking the journey, followed by a December release of a Transparent Sea A4 horizontal book with DVD short film insert.
100% recycled paper, non-toxic inks, no plastic wrap, recycled plastic DVD’s.
In celebration of Rasta and Del Moro’s voyage, we’re giving away a big box full of Sticky Bumps gear including a sweet Tour Series Boardbag (1 board model), a Tour Series traction pad, a bunch of Sticky Bumps wax, gear and fin organizer, tee shirt, hat, leash, and even a Sticky Bumps candle. All you have to do to win is tell us in the comment box below to what lengths you would go to save the whales…be creative, be funny, and win! The winner will be picked in early September.
Thanks heaps for this indeed!… if anyone else has anything, it would be much appreciated. Great website Super Piano Links 
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August 21st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
oh Goood for You…
August 21st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
What would you do if Whales killed your grandma? You would rebel and kill whales, correct? This is happening every single day in a whales life, their grandmothers, grandfathers, parents, sisters, and brothers are being killed, yet they do not have the capability to lash out revenge on us humans… Hopefully. To stop this cycle of killing, we all need to do our parts to save these wonderful animals. Personally speaking, I would go to major lengths to save the whales. I am not saying I would pull a jihad, yet I would spend every fleeting second with the Whales protecting them. With sufficient funding, I would create the first krill farm, that would clone vast amounts of krill to try and get more food out to these dieing animals. But what about predators? Well, my answer to that is have you ever tried to spear a whale who has twin sub machine guns attached to each fin? Have you tried to spear a whale and then been blown to pieces? I plan on fitting mas amounts of ammunition on these loving animals to give them a chance to get revenge. These animals will be feed and have a chance at getting back at those grandmother killers! In closing, would you try to kill a whale that had machine guns and was ready to use them? I think not.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Austin,
Even broccoli screams when you rip it from the ground.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
thank you
August 21st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
what lengths would i go to, to save the whales? i’d buy them drinks, take them home, and maybe, just maybe, not regret it in the morning…and mean it!
August 21st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
fkn whale wars…. fkn whale wars!
August 21st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Id probably stop hitting golf balls into the ocean. I heard they can get stuck in their water spout’s and then all the water gets blocked up inside them, so they eventually explode cos the water cant get out any where
Mm, I’ll definitely stop hitting golf balls into the ocean from now on.
That was a rather sad story
August 21st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
i’d punch the kid above me in the face for using sad homo faces
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
To save the whales, I would charge Jaws on my fish wearing a tuxedo suit.. shoes and all. If it meant saving the whales, I would punch the queen of England in the face. If I could save the whales, I would shave every bit of hair on my body off with a shard of glass. But in all seriousness I would track those poacher pricks down like they do on whale wars and throw C4 on their boat. Save the whales! they’re vital to the marine habitats all us surfers enjoy every day.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
you no what I had done for save the whales? I had sit right in front of dat stupid super ferry and risked my life for da whales. you also no wer I stay right now, I stay with rasta on the boat doing the transport sea voyage. It is epic bra, we had already saved 2zilion1hundredbilion6thosandtrilion1hunred2
August 24th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
To save the whales i would go to great lengths. I would march straight up to bradda Obama and tell that kid “ho bra you beda going fo make one law to make whale hunting elegal” we exspecialy need the humpbacks protected cous they stay almost extinkt.Then once obama makes the law i would personally talk to all the other braddas that lead the world and make them make a law. so who ever hunts whales eva a gin they going die bra.SHOOOOOOOOOOTS!
August 24th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Well first I would go down to Walmart, and buy LOTS of razors. Then head out to the ocean and start catching as many whales as possible. Once they have done thrashing around I would start trimming as much of their hair as possible and then….oh wait! SAVE the whales, I thought you said SHAVE the whales….my bad!
August 25th, 2009 at 11:39 am
are u filipino?
August 25th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I would put on a giant whale suit and swim with them, and once the guys came by to kill them, I would pull a Chuck Norris kick to the face. Making them scared to ever mess with whales again.
August 25th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I would be willing to be a whale surrogate, and donate my body for insemenation. Stretch marks will be a Bitch, But ill do what i can to save the whales.
August 25th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
i would jump in and lead the whales to a rebellion against the whale slayers.then we would go to hawaii and frollic
August 25th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
to save the whales i would make them kevlar suits with whale symboles on there backs showing that there strong in numbers and teach them some amazing jackie chan moves so if they do get caught they can pull some sick moves and get away and go chill with there homies.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I would get Ben Bernanke drunk and still his key to the Federal Reserve Printing Press. I’d go into the Fed. at night and print lots of money and use it to bribe Japanese and Norwegian Politicians to lower the quotas that they currently allow. Japan (1330) and Norway (1050) lets bring that down to 80 per country. That’s asking for a lot, so I might have to higher some really hot hookers from Vegas and blackmail some of the Politicians who will not take bribes. Now since the Japaneses people view anti-whaling groups as racist propagandist, I’d also use the money to contract all the A list Japanese Celebrities to do PSA’s and join in Rasta anti-whaling efforts. Now that the two biggest culprits are taken care of (Japan & Norway), time to turn my attention to the whales that are killed by ship collisions. I’d higher Steven Hawkins to develop and audible warning code that whales can understand. I’d mount this technology to the bow of all the big ships out there on the great blue ocean. As big ships approached whales would hear in whale language; something to the effect of “hey get out of the way, I’m a big ass ship and I’m coming through, if you don’t you will be killed”. Now that all my efforts are in place I’d pick a fight with Bernanke and knock him out cold, put the key back in his pocket and go surfing. I would not keep a single dollar for myself, because in the end “all I need are some tasty waves and a cool buzz” yeah… Spicoli.
good luck whales, I wish you the best in your survival efforts.
August 29th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Call Al Gore. aHaa
August 29th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
We take so many things in our life for granted, I hope that every one reading this has thought of never being able to surf again. Well imagine if you were to starve and die. These whales are starving and dying, and I would give up surfing to save them. I would take a laxative every day to save them. I would do almost anything to save the whales. And I will raise awareness for these whales in my local community. I believe that If whales go extinct then there would me mass overpopulation of certain sea creatures and the Eco system that we love so much would not be in its natural order. Every animal on this earth is here for a specific reason, and if a certain species was to go extinct that Eco system would be in danger
August 31st, 2009 at 9:33 am
I would give all the whales MP5s and let them protect themselves.
September 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am
To save the whales I would get Aquaman so that he could bring every ass kicking sea creature in the world to fight and save the whales!!!
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I would give everything to save the whales. I would give all of my time and effort to save them. First by starting fundraisers to earn money for the well being of them. Then I would go on tv, the internet and other media forms to get out what is happining to the whales. Also i would send out information packets to schools and people around the world. next i would start a charity and work with other charities for them. I will cut up also thoes six pack soda rings, write informational letters and stuff them, pick up trash, never release ballons, and prevent my car from leaking so that the leaks won't go into the ocean through storm drains. I also will pick up trash on the road and not litter so the trash doesn't go down the storm drains and into the ocean. I will not get rid of fishing gear and line into the ocean. Also I will Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce pollution and buy only green products. Lastly, I will work with Rasta and major surf corporations to save the whales!!