In California, we look out onto the world’s largest ocean, larger than Earth's total land area; yet until recently, most of us, even those who love the shore and the surf, were largely unaware of the underwater world. That is now changing.

Back in the 1970s, when citizens rallied to save the coast, they were driven by fear that private development would wall them off from the beaches and ocean views. In 1972 they passed the "Save Our Coast" voter initiative,Proposition 20, which led to the 1976 California Coastal Act. That law defined a strip along the shore as the Coastal Zone, and created the Coastal Commission to ensure the people’s right of access to the shore and protection for their natural heritage. But it became apparent that protecting the coast required looking upstream and to nearshore waters as well. The Coastal Conservancy, also established in 1976, now works within all the coastal watersheds on projects to restore and protect streams and other habitats, farms, and open spaces. Lately it has also been increasingly active in nearshore waters, which receive land-based pollution and are vital for birds, fish, and myriad other creatures. Public understanding of ecological interconnectedness has grown, but it still doesn’t extend far beyond the shoreline.

In fact, our coast is inseparable from the ocean and all that surrounds it. Ocean issues affect every one of us. Our mountains and rivers don’t stop at the waterline. The pollution and junk that we dump into the ocean does not vanish. Scientists, recreational divers, underwater photographers, and filmmakers, shocked by what they find, have been calling for action. Undersea explorers using new technologies have been discovering strange creatures at depths long assumed to be devoid of life. And slowly but surely, an ocean protection movement has arisen throughout the Pacific Basin, with aquariums, new nongovernmental organizations, and some older conservation groups playing major roles.

This issue of Coast & Ocean contains articles about some of the greatest threats to the Pacific Ocean, as well as hopeful trends. The most alarming article concerns ocean acidification, the least-talked-about but perhaps most serious effect of climate change. Doug George, an oceanographer and science writer, learned that the current rapid change in the ocean’s chemistry appears to be irreversible.

Glen Martin reports on the impacts of large ships on sea life. That’s an ocean pollution problem that can be mitigated--if enough people demand it. David McGuire and Anne Canright write about sharks, top predators that play a vital role in ocean ecosystems but are rapidly declining. Although they were here before the dinosaurs, their future is uncertain. McGuire is among their passionate defenders.

Despite the rather grim picture these stories paint, there’s good news too. Many recreational divers have become activists and are inspiring others. Preservation efforts, including a movement to establish marine protected areas, have been launched by many Pacific nations, ranging from tiny Kiribati to Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, with California in the lead. It’s not too late to start working together for our ocean.

This issue is built around a map created especially for Coast & Ocean by artist Mona Caron. Maps commonly focus on the continents, with the world ocean as blue backdrop. In most maps of North America I’ve come across, you see only the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. Our map shows the entire Pacific. It is an artist’s evocation, sparked by the desire that everyone learn about the underwater world and the role we play in it, and become engaged in protecting it. Among those who helped in this map’s creation we are especially grateful to John Cloud, historical geographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Central Library.

Younger children will not read the articles in this issue, but we expect that they will be intrigued by what they see on the map and ask questions. You might use other maps, such as those of National Geographic and Google, and books and the Internet, to satisfy their--and your--curiosity about features you find on the map. Note that we have not put in city or country names, only those of continents and selected islands, and not even all of those--there are more than 20,000 Pacific islands, and the size of the map did not allow that much detail. We hope this map will lead to further geographical exploration.

To get a free printed copy of this map, contact Dick Wayman at dwayman@scc.ca.gov or (510) 286-4182. You might hang our map next to your bathroom mirror or medicine cabinet, to study while you brush your teeth. Or simply use it as a bright reminder of our connection with the place we all came from--the sea.