the new gulf war
operation: start with the turtles, stop the spill.

i know we are all sickened and saddened by this catastrophe in the gulf, and how it has been handled.






man alive, huh? now, check this out...


















my name is brock cahill. i am an avid lover of the sea and all its creatures. i must admit, i do have a special and fond affinity for sea turtles. they are such beautiful, serene, and graceful animals. if you have ever swam with one, you know what chillers they are.





the unfortunate truth is that many species of sea turtles are endangered. their numbers have dwindled tremendously over the last century, but most especially in the last 50 years. one of our lil buddies in the most grave of danger is the kemp's ridley turtle. in 1947 40,000 ridley nests were counted on a single beach in mexico. by 1985 the number of nests had dwindled to less than 200. more recently the number of nesting females has climbed back upward toward 6000. great news! but a long way from a full recovery.


enter bp and the deepwater horizon oil spill... so far the turtle death toll has reached 407, and that is just the corpses that have washed up on the beaches. this is a massive percent of the population. the kemp's ridleys follow their annual migration to the same beach in mexico every year. guess what, it leads directly past the deepwater horizon site. many lil dudes are getting caught in the oil as they come up to surface for breath. once fouled by the oil they cant swim and are trapped. bp is now towing collection booms behind fishing trawlers to wrangle oil on the surface, and once collected, burn the oil to get rid of it. i wonder what else they are burning in that mass of collected oil? ...oh shit. you got it. juvenile kemp's ridley turtles, amongst a plethora of other sea creatures, including pelicans and other sea birds, fish and anything that gets fouled on the surface of the oil. burning them alive! here is the kicker... it is in bp's best financial interest to burn the evidence, as there is a mandatory fine of up to $50,000 that they will be liable for, for every turtle killed. there have been a few organizations out in the water trying to make rescues for these turtles, and bp will not let them near where they need to go. they have had some successes on the periphery of the spill, reaching some of the turtles and getting them cleaned transported back to the audubon aquarium in new orleans and nursed back toward health. but of course no one is being allowed near the collection booms, or the burns! hmm. wonder why..? this is not okay with me. not for a single frickin second! this is when my mission became clear. i simply can not sit by and watch this happen. im not the kind of guy that is going to let bp get away with this, at least not without having a severe problem with me.

my plan is to head down to louisiana, get a boat, and get to work saving turtles. i am a strong individual, both in will, and physical nature, and i tend not to let impossible obstacles stay in my path. my work ethic helps me turn impossibilities into mere challenges. i am not afraid of hard work, my only fears lie in letting this go down without a fight; without standing up for what is right. we cant go down like this. oh man, the gulf, my beloved caribbean, the entire ocean..? the integrity of our humanity, as well as our planet and home depend on our action now, more than ever. of course my mission is to save the turtles, but my real motivation lives in creating enough political outrage, enough social unrest, that we as a public, force the government into action. i cant sit around and talk about it. i'm hoping this story, and my example will light a fire under the ass of the nation, and the world, to get this spill stopped now. it is so urgent, and i dont feel as though the magnitude of this urgency has been comprehended. there are ideas on how to fix this, to stop the leak, and i am hoping that we as a people will not rest until we have exhausted every single possibility and come up with a solution. i know at times it feels helpless, but we must keep it on the tip of our consciousness, keep talking about it, keep brainstorming, and finding things that we can do as individuals to point our energies in the right direction. to fight the good fight.

so... the details of my mission are, that i hope to travel to the gulf for one month, to see how much i can accomplish, and then reassess. to put the plan into action, my target is that i will need to raise about $100,000. this will include a minimal travel & living expense as well as charter for boat, captain and crew. no small chunk of change, especially when the outcome is so uncertain. but... if i can save 33 turtles, the price tag looks manageable at $3k per turtle saved! that might be optimistic, it might be easy. not sure, and really hard to say until i get down there. the reason for this is that no accurate or trustworthy information has been funneled back to our communities. thorough my network, and new social media, i know i can get information out to people, and i wont rest until i do, so folks can really see what is going on down there. as i said before, my hope is that this will ignite a whole new army of activism.

this is really a grass roots effort. i believe that our community can pull this off. it is massive, but we have to get involved. here is a good first step! please, pass this around, if you know of any organizations or individuals or businesses that may want to help with donations or grants, could you talk it up to them? i got 5 days to raise the dough. i know you want to help, so lets do it together. if you are a yoga studio, perhaps you could throw a fundraiser or something? is there a chance that some of the yoga community businesses might donate? if you are a yoga teacher you could ignite your communities and rally the troops! etc...
get in touch with me if you have ideas. brock@gravitycowboy.com

i hope to leave on the 4th of july. that's sunday. time is of the essence!

please help. please get involved. we all have our part to play in this revolution. find yours! and maybe help me with mine?


you may want to take a look at this video link. this is mike ellis. he is my boat captain, and we will make a difference.