Contact

Store

About

Issues
News
Guides
Lake Ontario
Media
Get Involved
Donate Now

Search

Home
Issues
News
Guides
Lake Ontario
Media
Get Involved
About
Contact
Store
Donate Now
News

This is my Watermark. What’s yours?

Published on January 14, 2016 by Krystyn Tully.

Krystyn showing her love for her favourite waterbody at the 2013 Toronto Island Lake Swim. (Photo via Lake Ontario Waterkeeper)

Krystyn showing her love for her favourite waterbody at the 2013 Toronto Island Lake Swim. (Photo via Lake Ontario Waterkeeper)

Started by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in 2015, the Watermark Project aims to collect and archive one water story from every Canadian to demonstrate why swimmable, drinkable, fishable, water matters. Starting today, you can easily share your story at watermarkproject.ca. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper Vice President, Krystyn Tully discusses the Watermark Project and shares her Watermark. This article was originally posted in Canadian Yachting.  

I was upside down with my head and chest submerged in the Toronto Harbour when it hit me.

It was early spring and I was taking the final test for the accelerated Basic Cruising Standard test. It was cold on Lake Ontario, pouring rain, and our crew was struggling to finish. My job - the final job of the day - was to capture the buoy in a “man overboard” drill.  It was the would-be captain’s third or fourth attempt. I was wet, cold, exhausted, and ready to go home. This time, I vowed, I would reach the buoy no matter how far away it floated, no matter how wrong the angle or the speed. It ends now, I thought.

Which is how I came to be upside down, head in the water, legs still on the boat, stretching my arms as far as they could stretch. When I grabbed the buoy, I hugged it like a long-lost child. Someone hauled me in by rain pants. And that’s when it hit me: We’ve come so far, this lake and me.

I grew up on Lake Ontario. I could see it from the end of my street, a thin blue strip on the horizon. We used to take buckets to the marsh to capture tiny sea monkey-like creatures (“amphipods”) to dump into empty aquariums at home. We’d gather by the shore to watch fireworks on Canada Day. But I never, ever swam in the lake. I never caught a fish. I never took a trip in a boat. The lake was something to look at, but never to touch.

Fast forward twenty-odd years and there I was, fully submerged in the Toronto Harbour and minutes away from becoming a certified sailor. Head down in the waves, I understood the powerful influence my lake had on my life for the very first time.

In my early twenties, I moved to Toronto. I met people who cottaged, who’d grown up on boats big and small, who went to the beach on the weekends. I saw an obvious connection between time spent on the water and confidence, hope for the future, economic opportunity.

Growing up in a then-polluted community, my world had fewer options. Our struggle to prosper was far greater. When I found a community that had access to healthier parts of the lake, my world opened up. There were far more economic and social opportunities than I’d known before. I learned that access to clean water changes everything.

That’s my story. As important as it is to me, it’s just one of millions of stories Canadians have about the way water shapes their lives.

We have started a collection of these water stories at Waterkeeper, the nonprofit I helped to start in 2001. We call them “Watermarks," after the faint but permanent mark that a waterbody leaves on you.

Everyone has a Watermark

When you think about your favourite body of water, what one springs to mind? When you recall your most powerful memory of being on the water, what is it? Everyone has a Watermark, including you.

Sometimes, the mark is stark: drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated fish and getting sick. Sometimes, the mark is more poetic: the lake at the cottage where you watched your children grow up.

The Power of a Watermark

Sharing your Watermark is an incredible experience. So is hearing someone else’s story. I like to pull them out of relatives over holiday meals or colleagues at networking events. You can learn so much about a person when you hear their Watermark.

There’s a practical benefit, too. As stewards of Canada’s waters, Waterkeeper learns so much about the country’s connection to water. We learn where our ancestors paddled. We learn where our children get their food. Your story helps to record valuable information about the environment in a specific place at a specific moment in time. This is the kind of information that helps protect water, so that everyone can safely swim, drink, and fish.

It’s a simple thing, to conjure up your Watermark, but it’s powerful. Try it.

Discover the Watermark Project

 

watermark project

Newer Articles Older Articles
Featured
Gord Edgar Downie Pier T-shirt
Gord Edgar Downie Pier T-shirt

This shirt commemorates the Gord Edgar Downie Pier in Kingston, Ontario. The City of Kingston and Swim Drink Fish Canada unveiled the pier on July 26, 2018.

100% of our proceeds support our core initiatives so Canadian communities can prosper.

Blog Categories

  • Deloro (2)
  • Eastern Mainline Pipeline (2)
  • American Eel (3)
  • King's Mill Park (4)
  • Castonguay (5)
  • Gifford Hill (5)
  • Pickering (5)
  • Skip the Wash (5)
  • Swim Guide (6)
  • Enbridge-Line9 (9)
  • Events and Meetings (9)
  • GreatLakes Protection Act (10)
  • Waterkeeper Gala (10)
  • Press Releases (11)
  • TO Island Airport (14)
  • Microbeads (15)
  • WestonGreatLakesChallenge (15)
  • 2014 Challenge (16)
  • Microplastics (16)
  • Red Hill Valley Express (20)
  • PortHope RadioactiveWaste (25)
  • TorontoHarbour Monitoring (30)
  • Canadian rollbacks (34)
  • Darlington Refurbishment (46)
  • Toronto Sewage Bypasses (65)

Blog History

  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • February 2012
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • September 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • March 2007
  • October 2006
  • August 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • June 2005
  • April 2005
  • February 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • April 2004
  • March 2004
  • February 2004
  • January 2004
  • November 2003
  • October 2003
  • September 2003
  • August 2003
  • July 2003
  • June 2003
  • April 2003
  • December 2002
  • November 2002
  • August 2002
  • June 2002
  • May 2002
  • April 2002
  • March 2002
  • October 2001
  • September 2001
Donate Now
Lake Ontario
Cases
Blog
Events
Store
Contact
Guides
Great Lakes Guide
Swim Guide
Drink Guide
Media
Get Involved
Donate
Volunteer
Report Pollution
Events
Sponsor A Beach
About
History
Staff

Search

Waterkeeper, Swim Drink Fish, and the Swim Drink Fish design (icons) are registered trademarks of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.