Reef Life
An Underwater Memoir
Published on 7. November 2019
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-78816-215-9 (ISBN)
Description
Reef Life is a marine science memoir - the story of how Britain's pre-eminent marine conservation scientist, fell in love with coral reefs. Callum Roberts begins as a young university student who had never been abroad, spending a summer helping to map the unknown reefs of Saudi Arabia. From the moment he first cleared his goggles, he's never looked back, moving on to survey Sharm al-Sheikh, and from there diving and researching all over the world, including the Australia's imperilled Great Barrier Reef and the more resilient reefs of the Caribbean, in a thirty-year career. His stories are astonishing, lyrical and laced with a wonderful wry humour - and they allow us privileged access to, and understanding of, the science of our oceans and reefs. Reading this book will also commit readers to support of Callum's goal to get marine reserve status for ten percent of the world's ocean.
Reviews / Votes
A ravishing, alarming account of these underwater palaces of wonder, and the existential threat they face from humanity and our warming climate...The chief pleasure of this book is Roberts's rich descriptive power. He was an adviser for Blue Planet 2, and his writing does more than justice to those stunning films. Nature's throne rooms are thrown open by Roberts's prose. -- Colin Greenwood * The Spectator * Part odyssey, part 'Reef Ecology 101', Roberts' witty and vivid descriptions of the underwater world are meshed with the most up-to-date findings, which suggest that "reefs cannot be climate-proofed and they can't hide from climate change" -- Boris Worm * Nature * Reef Life is a vibrant memoir of the joys, as well as the grind, of a research career beginning in the 1980s that has spanned a golden age of coral reef science. It is also a fine introduction to the ecology of reefs and the existential threats they now face. -- Caspar Henderson * The Guardian * Compulsory reading for scuba divers and armchair divers alike * BBC Wildlife * Praise for Ocean of Life:'Roberts is that precious pearl: a practising scientist who not only knows his field inside out, but also understands how to write compelling, persuasive non-fiction ... he has trawled and plundered these experiences to craft the nearest thing we are ever likely to get to an all-encompassing manifesto for sustainable marine management' -- Leo Hickman * Guardian * I know of no other volume that treats such divergent ocean issues with this much accuracy and acumen ... At the heart of this book is a deep love of the ocean and a profound concern for its viability as a resource for us all. -- Stephen Palumbi * Nature * Compulsory reading for scuba divers and armchair divers alike, Roberts tells at times hilarious stories of the ups and downs of reef research * Discover Wildlife *
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
50 integrated b/w2 x 8pp colour plates
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
624 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78816-215-9 (9781788162159)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2019
Profile Books Ltd
€15.49
Available for download
Person
Professor of Marine Conservation at York University, Callum Roberts is one of the world's leading oceanographers. He was the Chief Scientific Advisor on Blue Planet 2 and writes regularly on marine issues for the Guardian. He is the author of two award-winning books, The Unnatural History of the Sea (Rachel Carson Award, 2007) and Ocean of Life (Mountbatten Award, 2013).