This cruise offers a different view of the Southern California coast.
The
2 1/2 -hour excursion takes passengers through a seascape short on the
picturesque but full of concrete and metal — a ride through
exhaust-tinged air and past power plants, rusty warehouses and the
Terminal Island prison that once housed Charles Manson and Al Capone.
On a drizzly afternoon, a group of tourists huddle aboard the
Christopher sipping wine, nibbling cookies and gazing out at the ocean
just off Long Beach. Cameras dangle from their necks, ready to record
the sights.
But these sightseers are not aboard for an afternoon of whale watching or a search for dolphins and sea lions.
Corroded metal shipping containers, belching smokestacks, trash-strewn waterways and oil islands highlight this harbor cruise.
When
the boat chugs past the Postojna, a Liberian cargo ship loading tons of
scrap metal into its hull, one passenger asks: "I wonder if my bike’s
there?"
In recent years, reality tours have shuttled sightseers
to the slums of Rio de Janeiro, through gang-plagued neighborhoods in
Los Angeles and on "toxic tours" of factories, refineries and
brownfields in Oakland.
The aim of the Urban Ocean Boat Cruise
— run by the Aquarium of the Pacific and Harbor Breeze Cruises — is
to ply Southern California’s most compromised waters to show the
environmental effects of trade, fishing, industry and other human
activities.
–Tony Barboza in Long Beach
Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times