Undrowned Padlet by Wyatt Sylvester

Chapter 1: listen

wsylve — 2025-05-04 05:03:37 UTC

In chapter 1, Gumbs talks a lot about the importance of listening. The article above goes into more detail about what that looks like. The author describes listening as different than just hearing. It includes receiving , understanding, remembering, and evaluating information at a higher degree.

Chapter 1: listen

wsylve — 2025-05-31 23:35:42 UTC

The image above depicts Hyrdodamalis Gigas, or the Stellar Sea Cow. As shown in the book, it was hunted to extinction because of humanities inability to listen.

Chapter 2: breath

wsylve — 2025-05-31 23:45:21 UTC

Gumbs describes breathing as staying calm and persevering in unbreathable circumstances. This is more true than ever in current circumstances when college and housing prices are through the roof as shown in the image above.

Chapter 3: remember

wsylve — 2025-05-31 23:52:33 UTC

This chapter talks more about remembering where we came from, and to honor the past. It also describes the lives of people who are ripped from their family and past and how they may remember their past. This is more true than ever at the border as seen in the article above. It describes how many children are taken from their parents and are not returned. If separated at such a young age, how will they remember and honor their past?

Chapter 4: practice

wsylve — 2025-06-01 00:01:16 UTC

"dolphins evolved dorsal fins from practice across generations. By accepting that the ocean would always move, and becoming accordingly. An embodied emphasis towards balance" (Gumbs, 44). This quote embodies the chapter very well by giving an example of dolphins who have adapted to an unstable environment to create stability, just as many humans should do. The article above goes into more detail about dorsal fins and explains how they are used for stability, and temperature control.

Chapter 5: collaborate

wsylve — 2025-06-01 00:07:21 UTC

This chapter mainly discusses dolphins and how in many cases, more than once species is allowed in the pod. I was very interested in how this worked so I looked more into it. The article above describes a pod of bottlenose and spotted dolphins who have merged to share space in the ocean. They hunt, babysit, and play together. Human society should be more like this, to encourage cooperation.

Chapter 6: be vulnerable

wsylve — 2025-06-01 00:19:03 UTC

This section talks about dolphins who are hunted, and have to hide to stay alive. Gumbs connects this to humans and having to hide who they truly are. The author connects this to the walrus, who doesn't hide their teeth, instead they show them for everyone to see. Gumbs mentions that walrus teeth never stop growing which made me curious. The world record for walrus teeth is 37 inches. However, it is sad to see that the vast majority of walruses don't have very long tusks because of hunting.

Chapter 7: be present

wsylve — 2025-06-01 00:32:57 UTC

Gumbs talks about the author, Alexis De Veaux, and their article on Namibia dolphins. This author sounded interesting so I did some research and they have a website about themselves. The article above says that Alexis De Veaux is a writer (poetry and books), a motivational speaker (talking about black feminism), and an activist (trying to change the world for the better). In many ways, Gumbs resembles De Veaux and probably learn a lot from each other. De Veaux's article was published in Essence Magazine which is primarily about African-American culture, entertainment, and fashion.

Chapter 8: be fierce

wsylve — 2025-06-01 00:41:23 UTC

The first sentence of this chapter immediately caught my interest: "Did you hear about the rainbow-breathing whale that straight up swallowed a white South African diver?" (Gumbs, 73). I wanted to find more information on instances of whales and humans and I found a lot of interesting videos. The best of these is posted above. This whale is definitely being fierce.

Chapter 9: learn from conflict

wsylve — 2025-06-01 00:53:29 UTC

Gumbs describes sea lions who fight and kill each other because they are all dying from a disease. This related to humans, creating conflict, just because times are tough. I wanted to learn more about this phenomenon when I found the article above. It mainly explain how for the most part, it is a combination of self-interest and uncertainty that create conflict. When things are unstable, many people do what they can to help themselves instead of helping the society to stop the conflict.

Chapter 10: honor your boundaries

wsylve — 2025-06-02 08:57:47 UTC

I was wondering what the Giant Beaked Whale looked like to make people say it has a beak. I did some research on them and was surprised to find that they almost look like giant dolphins.

Chapter 10: honor your boundaries

wsylve — 2025-06-02 09:01:07 UTC

I wasn't sure what the NOAA was when it was mentioned in the book. I found their website and it stands for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. They basically research anything related to the ocean and the weather, specifically ocean life.

Chapter 11: respect your hair

wsylve — 2025-06-02 09:17:02 UTC

Gumbs briefly mentions narwhal horns being passed as unicorn horns and that made me curios. It turns out that up until the 1800s many people strongly believed that unicorns existed, or once existed. Because of this, many hunters/traders killed narwhals, rhinos, and elephants because they were worth a fortune. Even many Kings and Queens bought unicorn horns because they believed it would cure disease and prevent poisoning. What a strong display of capitalism!

Chapter 13: refuse

wsylve — 2025-06-03 06:51:40 UTC

Gumbs briefly mentions noise pollution in the ocean making it difficult for scientists to identify whale noises. This made me wonder what other harm capitalist ship noises caused. The article above shows that it causes stress, which forces them to move habitats and to change natural behaviors.

Chapter 13: refuse

wsylve — 2025-06-03 07:00:58 UTC

Gumbs mentions dolphins being captured so I wanted to look deeper. It turns out that the constant sun exposure in a tank can lead to poor eyesight and blistering, same with poor water quality and the chlorine in the water. There is also a symptom called fin flop which is spotted in 100% of captive orcas, and only 1% of wild ones.

Chapter 14: surrender

wsylve — 2025-06-04 00:28:57 UTC

Gumbs mentioned the gulf stream and how global warming is heating the ocean. I did more research and it turns out that that the Gulf stream may not exist as early as 2025, to 2095. This would cause a massive rise in sea levels and sea temperature. What a terrible consequence of human greed and capitalism.

Chapter 15: go deep

wsylve — 2025-06-04 00:49:21 UTC

The author briefly mentioned problems with the mining in Jamaica and I wanted to hear more about that. It may not be the same incident since there were more than I could count, but a bauxite plant is consistently polluting the nearby river. Many of the fish are being found dead, and the water smells of toxic chemicals.

Chapter 15: go deep

wsylve — 2025-06-04 00:49:55 UTC

Chapter 16: stay black

wsylve — 2025-06-04 02:33:44 UTC

"Using hardwood bats, the hunters club the pups unconscious, then skin them with sharp knives. The animals die through massive blood loss during the skinning" (New York Times). This is the new "humane" method to kill baby harp seals for the fur. Canada hosts an annual seal hunt where nearly 180,000 baby harp seals will be murdered for their fur and blubber.

Chapter 17: slow down

wsylve — 2025-06-04 02:50:10 UTC

The Brazilian anti-environment government is encouraging landowners to burn the amazon rainforest to create land for pastures to fuel the global meat industry. Human greed for more land and more money is causing the world to burn in front of our eyes and we need to stop it.

Chapter 19: take care of your blessings

wsylve — 2025-06-04 03:25:44 UTC

In South Africa, there are hundreds of seals showing up dead on beaches every year. Studies find that they are malnourished and have starved to death. Global warming and over fishing is making it very hard for seals and birds in that area to find food. This related to the text because Gumbs talks about the South African Seal who is dying off.

Chapter 19: take care of your blessings

wsylve — 2025-06-04 03:36:54 UTC

The author mentions the red tide, and how it is caused by pollution. I did more research and it is caused by pesticides traveling into the ocean, which make the red tides much more common and potent. It kills almost 200 tons of fish, as well as dolphins and manatees.