Why Nature's Passage? : Sea burials are Earth friendly and priced right!
Nature’s Passage breaks with contemporary funeral and burial traditions and re-introduces a natural interment method that is thousands of years old. Sea burials ensure your final resting place is environmentally friendly and priced up to 70% lower than traditional in-ground burials.
A typical American funeral is both an assault on our environment and your wallet! Funeral costs upwards of $15,000 are the average! Ask yourself…why pay for a coffin that costs more than a new car? America’s mortuary business is a 20 billion dollar a year industry. Your funeral is the third largest expense your family will pay, after your home and education.
We’ve become separated from the natural passage from life to death.
Formaldehyde—embalming fluid, non-degradable steel caskets, and concrete vaults placed inches from another grave site is an assault upon our environment!
Each year we bury:
- 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid
- 180,544 pounds of steel, in caskets
- 5,400,000 pounds of copper and bronze, in caskets
- 3,272,000,000 pounds of reinforced concrete used in vaults
- 28,000,000 pounds of steel, in vaults
- 30 million board feet of non-degradable hard woods used in caskets
On a per acre basis with in the average cemetery with an average of 2,000 bodies per acre, we bury 97.5 tons of steel; 2,028 tons of concrete and 56,250 board feet of hard woods. (Data: Mary Woodsen, Cornell University)
Nature’s Passage insists upon a more environmentally friendly method of interment that costs a lot less than traditional in-ground burials. Instead of toxic chemicals that invade and spoil our water supply, we try to minimize embalming as much a possible. Instead of concrete, steel and hardwoods, we insist biodegradable containers, or burial shrouds made of natural fibers are used. Interment in the ocean at depths greater than 600 feet insures the body quickly proceeds upon its final ‘passage’ as nature intended.
Nature’s Passage burial sites are located and charted with GPS instruments so future generations may locate an ancestor’s final interment location.
Nature’s Passage provides - at no cost to the surviving families - an ‘anniversary’ voyage every July 31st to interment sites off the Long Island coast so family members can visit and lay flowers above their loved one’s sea burial site.
- Is the most ‘environmentally friendly’ method of interment.
- Lowest cost possible.
- Saves land space.
- Prevents septic waste seeping into the ground waters adjacent to grave yards.
- Shrouded -sail cloth wrapped- sea burial: eliminates costs associated with cremation, and in-ground burial: caskets, vaults, urns, embalming, cemetery plot purchase and maintenance fees.
- Cremated spreading ashes: eliminates costs associated with in-ground burial, caskets, vaults, urns, embalming, cemetery plot purchase and maintenance fees.
- Casketed full-body burial at sea: eliminates costs associated with in-ground burial, --a casket is required, but is of minimal cost--, vaults, urns, embalming, cemetery plot purchase and maintenance fees.
- Provides the same elements valued in funeral services.
- You do not have to hire a funeral home to plan or conduct a memorial service.
- Responds to the wishes of the deceased to be buried at sea.
- Simple to plan.
- Provides closure.
- Gives the opportunity for family and friends to gather and say goodbye.
- Can be as simple or as elaborate as one chooses.
- Can include the use of as many options as one could imagine: Music, flowers, photographs, video production, etc.
- Site selection for your memorial service might include a merchant vessel capable of carrying up to 300 people. Guests eat and dance while they tour the harbor of the largest city in your area.
- Of all the options available, spreading of cremated ashes is the option most chosen.
- If the deceased is a Veteran, ‘full military honors funeral ceremony’ will be available and performed either at sea-side location or at sea.
- Nondenominational religious services can be conducted by the ship’s captain on board prior to the start of the voyage or at the interment site.
- Charter fees for boats/ships spreading ashes at sea are less expensive than any other sea burial operation.
- Airborne helicopter flights dramatically reduce the time dedicated to casket and shrouded burials at depths greater than 600 feet.
Imagine facing death with far less fear, knowing that your burial instructions claim your right to a natural, humane, sensible and economical after-death care choice. Know that your instructions are both financially reasonable and environmentally correct. You’ll direct who will attend to you personally after death. You’ll know that you will be touched and cared for by friends and family with respect and caring.
Your sea burial ceremony will be held in a de-institutionalized setting – at sea… a dramatic, serene and intimate setting while family and friends participate in the ceremony that facilitates grieving and encourages healing and closure an experience that you wouldn’t see in a funeral home or cemetery. You might also take solace in the knowledge that your actions will help change cultural beliefs and the actions of future generations towards a more natural approach to death and funeral traditions. Our twelve promises:
- An exclusive burial ceremony at sea. Your loved one's ceremony is not 'one of many'.
- Ceremonies are scheduled and conducted promptly, often the same day we receive the casket or cremated remains. We don't warehouse caskets or containers of one's cremated remains for months.
- Interment in/on waters immediately adjacent to America 's shoreline. We don't perform your loved one's ceremony in foreign waters.
- Family members and friends can join the voyage and personally witness the burial at sea ceremony.
- A Nature's Passage burial at sea ceremony might not cost you a cent! You might gain money from benefits paid by the Veterans Administration. The Department of Veterans Affairs reimburses you for your veteran's burial expenses contingent upon your application and the VA's approval of your request for burial benefits . Considering the discounts Nature's Passage grants for veterans, payments received from the VA often exceed the burial costs charged by Nature's Passage.
- Provides documentary digital photos and or movies of the ceremony.
- Provides, at no cost, the commemorative American flag used during the ceremony.
- In addition to the commemorative flag and photos of the ceremony, we provide a digital photo of the chart marking the exact longitude and latitude indicating where the interment ceremony occurred, and finally, a copy of the vessel's log for that day, signed by the ship's captain.
- Nature's Passage does not disqualify an American service person's burial at sea if their military record reflects 'other than honorable' or a 'dishonorable' discharge. To those who have been disenfranchised because of their dubious service record, we hope and pray they may finally find peace in the ocean's embrace. This burial will not be conducted with military honors.
- With the concurrence and coordination of the ship's captain, family members may participate in the burial ceremony and or may specify ceremonial events unique to the deceased's religion, hobbies or life style.
- Sea voyage or airmobile-helicopter service.
- Full "Military" funeral honors.
If Nature's Passage appeals to your heart and soul, please consider taking the next step by clicking here to view our available services or call today toll free at 1-888-551-1277
Even in the desolate wilderness, stars can still shine.
~ Aoi Jiyuu Shiroi Nozomi
Nature's Passage Burial at Sea Service
Performing burials and 'military' memorial services at sea.
Subsidiary of : SeaServices.com
Phone: 1-888-551-1277
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