Civil Engineering May 2022 | Vol 30 No 4

16 May 2022 Civil Engineering S ometimes “blue”, or should I say, “the blues”, is used very expres- sively as an allegory for sadness or depression. Just writing a sentence like this evokes those feelings and the feelings of boring, depressing places. But that only applies to the word “blue” when it is used in this allegorical sense. There is another blue, a real blue, a colour that dominates nature in the blue of the sky and, as the blue of the sea, as an allegory for the sea itself. The sea is not limited to sadness and depression – it can do this but usually in real and constructive ways. The sea can evoke the full spectrum of emotions. It is the great healer of the soul. It quiets the disturbed and regener- ates the spirit of those who come to it. It is a common perception that the sea has an emotional tug on people. This is perhaps best captured by the opening line of John Masefield’s poem Sea Fever : “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky” This is an effect that is commonly ignored, or not even noticed in the bulk of the commerce of the oceans economy. Rather, it is only noticed in coastal and beach recreation and sport, in seaside property and in artisanal fishing and similar artisanal activities. But this effect is very strong wherever people interact with the sea, even if it is not noticed in major commercial and industrial activity. There is a new movement afoot to recognise how we are naturally drawn to the sea and the therapeutic effect it has on us. It is being led by an American ma- rine biologist, Wallace Nichols, who calls the effect “blue mind”, and separately by a group at the University of Essex, led by Prof. Lora Fleming, that calls it “blue health”. It focuses largely on the effect that the blue sea (as well as other water in rivers, lakes and canals) can have on our emotions. They are undertaking formal research into the effect of blue water on the neurology of the brain and trying to ensure that their studies are founded on this scientific bedrock before they dabble in the mythology of the sea. The “blue mind” effect is a matter that we, as marine engineers, need to take heed of. There is no question that the great works we perform have a strong influence on the blue mind of people in general whether for good or ill; but the influence is as strong on ourselves and our chosen profession. We need to recognise the effects on ourselves as much for our own good and motivation and well-being as for that of society at large. The ancient Greeks held that Zeus, the gatherer of clouds, of thunder and lightning, the god of the air and the heavens above, was the most powerful of all the gods, in full accord with James Lovelock’s Gaia theory of the dominance of the atmosphere over the biosphere. Next came the earth shaker, Poseidon, god of tectonics and, above all else, god of the sea. Poseidon’s realm is the great blue, the great boon of mankind. There is great practicality to the sea. It is the source of all life on earth and, as the great highway of the world, the mother and father of civilisation. It fosters engineering, great and small, ships that sail on the seas, and harbour and shore protection works. But beyond and above this, it is the great nurturer of humankind. EARLY EXPERIENCES My earliest memories are of a corrugated iron shack, the “Kia”, on Clifton Beach under the shadow of Lion’s Head. It was a land of sea and sand and sun and the mountain above. It was a land of blazing light, of the blue of the sky above and the sea below. In summer, we played on a beach of snow-white sand. In winter, great storms, driven by the full fury of the South Atlantic, stripped away the sand, leaving the huge, rounded boulders beneath and Blue Mind – my recollections of a life shared with the living sea Keith Mackie Pr Eng, FSAICE Consulting Coastal & Harbour Engineer keith@mackie.co.za “Eve’s footprints”, the oldest known footprints of a modern human, found in a fossil dune at Langebaan Lagoon, dated to approximately 117 000 years ago