Southern California boat captains say they have never been busier burying people at sea.
Years before her death last summer at the age of 85, Lois Woodburn cornered a mortician at a party to ask if she could be buried in the ocean.
“That was my grandma,” said Stremcha’s son, Daniel Reffner. “She was always dressing for the occasion.”August, about 30 of Woodburn’s family and friends took a yacht from Long Beach Harbor to a spot six miles offshore to watch the crew on a second boat slide Woodburn’s stainless steel casket into the ocean. It bobbed on the water for a few moments and then tipped forward, slipping quietly beneath the waves.“After seeing that, everyone wants to go to sea,” Stremcha said.
For others, the decision is environmentally motivated. “There’s more acceptance that cemeteries take up a lot of space and that, ecologically, there are better forms of body disposal than a cemetery,” said Natasha Mikles, a professor of religion at Texas State University who is writing a book about death rituals in the time of COVID-19.
Burials at sea also provide a sense of ritual that may be especially appealing to people who are not affiliated with a religious institution. “In this digital age, it makes more sense to have coordinates than an actual physical space,” she said. She and her husband decided against cremation because it didn’t feel ecologically sound. “Cremation requires burning and that puts CO2 in the air, and that’s not OK,” she said. “We wanted to make the best decision for the future of life on the planet.”Diane has the exact longitude and latitude of where her husband’s coffin entered the ocean. When her time comes, she intends to be laid to rest in the same spot.
If a casket is being used, stainless steel is best, with all plastic materials removed. It should have 20 2-inchholes drilled into it to allow water to flood in and weigh it down, and it should be secured with metal bands. Additional weights can also be used to offset the buoyancy of the body. Advanced permission is not needed for a burial at sea, but the EPA does need to be notified within 30 days of the service.
A body encased in a shroud would have less impact on the environment, especially if it was not embalmed, he said, but it will take a while to degrade. “My mother wants to be turned into a diamond, my dad wants to be buried in something that turns into a tree,” Mikles said.
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