When I first started to read this article by Mentz, I was a bit intimidated by it. But when I came across this line I believe I finally understood what he is trying to tell us about in this article: “We have come to know the sea,” he concludes,“as much through the humanities as through science.” Artistic, poetic, and humanistic knowledge, he insists, define the sea’s centrality to modern Western culture.” (pg. 144). There are so many ways that a vast number of people can learn about our oceans and what is within them and how they can help us as a society. As our oceans are so vast and cover most of the planet it has become a cental part of how we live our lives today.

Basic human knowledge as he says is part of how we know the sea, yes we can see it, touch it, smell it, and swim in it. But many don’t have acess to the ocean because of where they might live and they have heard of what the ocean looks like and might see pictures, a basic idea of the ocean. Those who might even do dives in the ocean and more, a lot of people can enjoy the ocean and what it can provide for us emotionally and even physically. People can also make art depicting the ocean and how others feel reguarding it which I enjoy seeing the most. The art works we looked at in class really spoke to me and I could see the story behind them and manty artists through their art styles can show how calm or even how violent the ocean might be. Reading about the ocean through poems is another way that Metz speaks of later and he does give examples of poems he enjoys which evokes the idea of blue humanities. So many poems have been written about the beach, the ocean and how one might feel regaurding it and this can help people gain a better knowledge of the ocean and what the ocean can mean for us.

As the ocean is so vast and everyone knows of it, it has become a source of where many countries recieve their food sources from and how much we use it, is very important for our modern world today.