Lou Dematteis/Spectral Q/Handout photos

On Sunday more than a hundred Homer boats - fishing vessels, skiffs, kayaks - assembled in Mud Bay, on the inside of the Homer Spit, to spell out "SOS" and "acid ocean." This was a combination of political demonstration and performance art; the assemblage was carefully choreographed by organizers, including the internationally known aerial artist John Quigley, and then photographed from above by a helicopter. The idea was to send a message to Alaska's Congressional delegation and all senators-who should soon be taking up climate change legislation-that Alaska's fisheries are at risk from ocean acidification, the "evil twin" of climate change.

I thought about joining the demonstration in my little red kayak. As a former commercial salmon fisherman and a coastal resident, I care very much about the future of our fisheries and fishing communities. I care very much that our human actions in burning fossil fuels and clearing forests have altered the earth's atmosphere and oceans to a seriously dangerous extent. And I care that the longer we refuse to address the root problem-all the carbon we continue to release-the more suffering there will eventually (sooner than we might have thought) be.

But I also felt conflicted about joining in. There was something ironic - I won't say perverse - about burning up fuel to protest burning fuel. I would have had to drive to get my kayak from where it's stored, then drive to the base of the Spit.

Do we need to put on a three-ring circus to get the attention of an indifferent public and our timid politicians?

The answer is yes. If the compelling science and public policy arguments, and the media to report these, could do the job, we would long ago have joined the rest of the world in making at least a semi-serious effort at addressing our carbon emissions. But this is America, where facts don't matter and media events do. I cannot dispute the value of a few hundred people taking part of a holiday weekend to make a visual statement about an economic and political cause. I hoped with all my heart that the effort would help educate more people and that the resulting images would impress and influence decision-makers.

For me, though, the right personal response was to not burn fuel. Instead I got on my bike and rode to the Spit to watch from ashore.

From one of the birding stations along the Spit bike trail, my biking partner and I watched candy-colored kayaks gathering in Mud Bay with orange buoys and a few larger boats. It was early yet, and the main flotilla was yet to leave the harbor on the end of the Spit.

Others, viewers like us, had also sought the bike trail, on bikes and roller blades, with baby strollers and dogs, or had climbed down to the beach to sit on logs and watch. Cars were parked wherever there were pull-outs. Under blue skies, in remarkably warm weather-when else have I worn shorts in September?-the day felt festive, the cause worthy.

Farther out the Spit, we stopped when we saw a friend starting up his truck. I mentioned the demonstration.

Our friend said, "Too bad it's not true," and then went off on a rant about how climate change and ocean acidification were lies perpetuated by liars.

My biking companion said, "Phil, it's not lies. It's chemistry."

Now, I'm assuming that Alaska Dispatch readers read reputable sources and do know, by this time, some basics about ocean acidification. There are plenty of excellent sources on-line, including the site of EPOCA, the European Project on Ocean Acidification, which is a consortium of more than 100 acidification researchers. See their blog for some basic EPOCA information about the subject, including a two-minute video and an article about why the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill is so important for our oceans, plus lots more links.