L O N G
I S L A N D J O U R N A L
Ashes to Ashes,
Then Into the Briny Deep
By
MARCELLE S. FISCHLER
NEAR
the Fire Island Lighthouse, Gus Hald stood on a ledge at the stern of his 43 foot motor yacht Determination,
opened a black plastic container and removed a sack of ashes. He stood silently
for a moment, then tossed a handful of roses and mums into the sea. Dipping into
the bag, he sprinkled the powdery gray cremated human remains into the waters.
Then he watched solemnly as they formed an undulating film and slowly drifted
with the current. Within moments the ashes were indistinguishable from the
waves.
"People
move away from Long Island, and that's where they want to spend their eternity,
in the water where they were brought up," said Mr. Hald, an arranger of
maritime funerals, pouring the last of the six to eight pounds of ashes into the
bay. "It's a release into nature."...
...Ten
years ago, he turned his love of boating into a business doing burials at sea,
strewing remains in the Atlantic Ocean and the Great South Bay. He is authorized
to do burials at sea because he has a master sea captain's license.
"We
use the lighthouse as the focal point," Mr. Hald said. "One of the
problems the industry had was the place to mourn."
As
a historical place, the lighthouse provides a permanent monument and perpetual
guiding light for those whose loved ones' final sanctuary is the sea. For many,
it serves as a tombstone, a place to visit and remember the departed. It is
especially appropriate for Long Island mariners who have spent much of their
lives on the waters, Mr. Hald said.
"What
is the more pleasant place to go to think about a loved one, the cemetery or the
beach?" he asked.
In
the past two years, the number of burials at sea off Long Island have increased
substantially, said Mr. Hald, who has disseminated more than 1,000 cremated
remains since he started his Sea Services company a decade ago. After John F.
Kennedy Jr.'s remains were scattered off Hyannis Port, Mass., from a naval
destroyer last summer, business boomed.
Jack
Springer, executive director of
the Cremation
Association of North America, said that cremation rates have risen steadily in
th
e past 25 years to nearly 26 percent of all deaths, because of lower cost, low
environmental impact and the simplicity of the process. In New York State, the
cremation rate is about 19 percent, with 29,455 cremations in 1998. About 18
percent of cremated remains are scattered on water or land, while 50 percent are
taken home or buried. Association surveys predict that in 10 years, 40 percent
of all bodies will be cremated.
"People
are more transient than they were, " Mr. Hald said. " It used to be
everybody stayed in the same place and worked for the phone company for 50
years. Mom and Pop and they had the plot. It's not like that today. People
move around more." Mr. Hald attributed much of the expansion of his
business to his Web site, www.seaservices.com. "I get a lot of cremated
remains
from all over of people who once lived here," he said.
Sometimes,
Mr. Hald receives the boxes of ashes in the mail and ventures out on the water
alone, charging $150 to scatter them. Afterward, he sends a certif icate with
the date and latitude and longitude of the scattering to the family. Charters
begin at $675 for six passengers.
"It's
just like a regular funeral, except instead of going to the cemetery, you go
for a burial at sea and then you go to lunch," Mr. Hald said.
As
sea scatterings increase in popularity, he said, the scenarios are becoming
more flamboyant. A man who was moving overseas asked that his mother's remains
be unearthed and sprinkled in the ocean so he would no longer have to worry
about maintaining her cemetery plot. When the patriarch of a family died,
leaving a stipulation in his will that he be buried in the middle of the
Atlantic, the family wanted to book the Queen Elizabeth 2 for the occasion.
"It's
almost like doing weddings, these wild requests - that's what funerals are
turning into," said Mr. Hald, who did wedding charters on his houseboat
before sea burials came into vogue.
For
those who literally want to go out with a bang, this spring Mr. Hald is
planning his first Grucci-style sendoff. For about $4,000, he will pack the
cremated remains into fire-works and float a barge out into the water. The
family can watch from a boat or Jones Beach, and choreograph the sendoff to
music.
On
board, Mr. Hald carries a line of pendants and lockets that can hold a small
amount of ashes, geared for those who want to wear their dearly departed close
to their hearts.
"The
scattering is done for the deceased, the memorialization is done for the
living," said Mr. Springer, the association official, noting that keeping
a small portion of the cremated remains as a keepsake is often helpful to the
bereaved.
Hunters
request to have their ashes packed into shotgun shells. Sports fans want
theirs seated into footballs or basketballs. Cremated remains are also placed
in satellites and launched into space or incorporated in coral reefs. But the
tale of the man who wanted his ashes put in a vacuum-cleaner bag so his wife
could keep cleaning up after him when he was gone, Mr. Hald said, is a joke,
not an option.
Several
times Mr. Hald has disposed of cremated remains over the ocean by plane.
According
to federal regulations, in the ocean ashes must be scattered at least three
miles from shore. The plastic containers cannot be dumped. Whole body burials
must take place where the water is at least 600 feet deep. But there are no New
York State laws preventing disposal of human ashes in the Great South Bay or
even from the edge of a dock. All sea burials are reported to the Environmental
Protection Agency. "We don't know who he is, but he obviously loved the
water," said Mr. Hald, as the last of the ashes and flowers floated away.
"I am handling this person's last request on this earth. I often wonder who
they were, what got them here, why they want to be buried at sea. Remember, we
are doing what the man wants."
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