Ocean 320 Coastal Ocean and Climate Change Haiku, Winter 2022
Students were assigned readings that touched on both the impact of change in the coastal zone on people and place as well as how human activity, including climate change, is impacting the coastal zone, and how changes in the coastal zone are impacting people. The articles address four topics: mangroves, marshes, sea ice loss and erosion, and marine heatwaves. They analyzed these readings, and then during the last day of class, collaboratively wrote haikus on their assigned topic. The last 15 minutes of class was devoted to a reading of the poems. Faculty and students alike wanted to share the results of our poetry slam. Enjoy!
Mangroves
By Isabelle, Christina, Yoav, Ariyanna, Allegra, Andrew
Sea Levels Up Up
Mangroves drowning bye bye
Coast Away Away
i search for mangrove
i will kill mangrove by roots
choked out the mangrove >:)
i, mangrove exist
i feel a choke and gasp, help!
i perish, plastic :(
I am a mangrove
The sea is consuming me
It takes your shore too
Mangroves protect them
Their fisheries suffer from
Plastic pollution
I search for mangroves
I attack their root systems
All mangroves must die
Mangroves, twisting roots
Saltwater mixing on coast
Shelter for many
Arctic
By Anna, Jonah, Charlie, Dominic
The ice is melting
Villages inundated
Due to climate change
Big tides, big problems
Threatening coastal peoples
Ice melt feedback loop
Ice melts in Arctic
Can’t safely hunt on the ice
Altering our lives
Farewell, my sea ice
Burning water from the depth
We meet less and less
Marine Heatwaves
By Cristian, Fred, Michael, Han, Elliot, Jenn
Unprecedented
No upwelling, mass die-offs
Stratification
California coast,
Upper layer is warming,
Less wind is blowing
Stagnant surface heat
Threatening ecosystems
Boiling off fish stocks
Marine heat wave strikes
Phytoplankton live no more
Foodchain can’t keep up
A cool breeze no more.
A lush ecosystem strains.
What has happened here?
Strange temperatures
Sea surface anomaly
Is known as the blob
Temps rise rise die
Fish die i die
You die we all die
Still blob heat threatens
Primary production and
Leads to extinction
Fish industry shrinks
Economy harmed, and
Locals affected
Toxic algal bloom
Fishing season is over
Boiled clams, good soup
I am warm water, threat
I KILL ALL IN MY PATH yum
They call me da blob
Marshes
Delilah, Leo, Abbey, Connor, and Alli
A warming planet
Raises the water level
Drowning the marshes.
Sea levels rising
Urban centers encroaching
Where did marshes go
Tidal marsh helpless
Entire Ecosystems
Consumed under waves
The northern marshes
Are unable to retreat,
Cornered by sea rise.
The southern marshes
Do not produce enough soil-
The region will drown.
Unable to grow
Unable to move away
So the marshes drown
Waters are rising
Wetlands need to move inland
Cities in the way
Gulf of Mexico
Particularly at risk
Of losing marshes
Sediment trapping
Coastal marshes do provide
Until walls go up
The marshes erode
The city underwater
Storm surge broke too late
Where did the fish go?
Water rise in the marshes
Threatens nurseries
Tiny fish, crucial
For growing fishery needs
Now vulnerable
Town planners need to
Plan for space for our wetlands
Else we cannot fish
