Some of you might be getting discouraged by the content of my website. I’d like to tell you why the content takes such a pessimistic view of our community and often society in general. I’d like to tell you about my experiences in our community.
I’m just going to start with the recent work I did to reach out to the biology community. Data can be interesting. With training in research and data analysis, I started trying to take a look at data related to the highly commercialized sea turtles and other biologically related activities that are considered publicly funded, but is typically not treated as public. I wanted to be involved with things like nesting activities and other biologically significant community things. Unfortunately, I was not treated very kindly by the people who control these things. One of the ways I was effectively blocked from engaging in these activities is by ignoring me, and when I was able to communicate with someone I was redirected or simply not given any relevant information. When going through to the next step, which I actually thought was just the normal process, which was to put in a public records request to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission for the data, asking for all relevant data on turtle nesting, I was given a total of like 5 documents. I was given recent licenses and things of that nature, none of which were data. These attempts usually include people saying things like, oh, I think this is the wrong department, or, oh, I think you need to contact this other person to get that. And oh, what do you want, oh, no, is that what you want, what do you want? Redirection after redirection. When someone does decide to finally give you something, you get nothing, or something unrelated to what you asked for.
I also thought, well hey, maybe I could contact the federal government to ask the IRS for tax documents so I could see the funders of CMA to see if I could find anyone who might be interested in funding biology research or education, or really anything. After finding the forms I needed to fill out to send to the IRS to get the tax documents, my mother told me, someone who worked for the federal government for 20+ years, you’re going to piss “them” off. “They” were probably already pissed off at this point, and of course I didn’t really want to piss “them” off. You may already know that pissing “them” off is really not a good idea. So I decided against pursuing that IRS document. Apparently people don’t like to talk about money.
Surf shops have been very unhelpful as well. Some of the owners have expressed interest in what I’m doing when I’m doing it for them for free. But when I offer them paid advertising, they completely lose interest. “I feel like you’re pressuring me” said Katrina from Kategory 5. “We’re not interested in that right now” said the owner of Suncoast Surf Shop. When I reached out to Ashley of Nekton Surf Shop, the shop manager, Cory Lopez’s sister, and Pete the Rusty clothing/surfboards rep who works at Nekton, they seemed very disinterested. Pete said I need to talk to Ashley, and Ashley never replied to my e-mails or phone calls. Surf shops don’t care if I’m here either despite what they may tell you.
When attempting to get involved in the community I was again not treated with any respect. When reaching out to people from various places I’ve heard little or nothing, and of course, more avoidance. Trying to figure out what’s going on in the community is next to impossible. I could almost argue that nothing is going on in our community, but that would be a really silly argument wouldn’t it? The communication and respect related to the way you communicate makes a big difference, and what I’ve experiences has been a near lack of communication on the part of various influential people in the community. Why are people so distant? They act basically friendly and social in a I’m not really listening kind of way when you’re right there talking to them, then turn around and avoid you when they can. There is a real lack of respect in our community particularly among decision makers.
When I first started setting up the species library I felt like someone who’s father is on the Aquarium’s board of directors harrassed me about it while I was surfing. I think someone knew what site building tools I was using, and suggested I center the content knowing that this would make adding to the library significantly more difficult. That centering of the library was really counter-productive. Months or more later I sent Mr. Yates an e-mail about setting up a Biology species library asking if he would like to assist with the project. I figured they would be a fantastic resource for this and interested in educating the community about local marine biology. Unfortunately, I was completely dodged on that one. I went ahead and fixed it; I set it up anyway. I reached out to the FWC on this too; they had approximately zero resources they could direct me to for creating a biology library that I felt like I could actually use. It’s just so sad how unhelpful they are.
Over the 15-20 years I’ve been surfing in Clearwater I’ve struggled with work. I’ve never made more than 9000 from a workplace in my life. Whenever I’ve attempted to find work in Clearwater I’ve been met with deterrence. I’m not supposed to work apparently. When I happened to end up in the same theater as Mr. Yates, sitting just two seats over from him in assigned seats, just him and I and one other person in a late night movie, I told him I need a job (I’ve been looking for a “not slave labor” job with a bachelors degree now since 2014), he said, yea, e-mail me if you see something on the site. The next morning I sent him a message telling him I would be interested in any of the three or four things or whatever it was on his website that I was qualified for. He just completely didn’t respond. Unfortunately, I just don’t feel the love.
For many years I’ve dealt with the people on the beach trying to persuade me to leave. They don’t want me there. Whenever I’m at the beach they literally try to take existing stimulus and use it to try to motivate me. They use words to try to get me to act. It’s really irritating, and can at times be rather stressful. You may have experienced something like this on busy summer days at the beach or crowded winter days at Sand Key. Maybe you didn’t realize it, maybe you did.
Dealing with the fact that people don’t want me here isn’t actually all that difficult. It’s pretty easy just to tune people out. Unfortunately, because this is what I do for fun and potentially for money I must make a concerted effort to listen to what people are saying, communicate, and get along. I guess I just don’t understand how people can be so selfish, unkind, and disrespectful. Their moral compass seems all messed up from my perspective. Fortunately for me, it’s not up to them whether or not I’m here taking pictures at the beach, writing articles about what I think on my website, and swimming, fishing, and surfing the gulf. This is my website, it’s my home, and I’m not going anywhere.
