Imperiled Ocean
Human Stories from a Changing Sea
Published on 22. November 2019
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-64313-198-6 (ISBN)
Description
On a life raft in the Mediterranean, a teenager from Ghana wonders whether he will reach Europe alive, and if he does, whether he will be allowed to stay. In the North Atlantic, a young chef disappears from a cruise ship, leaving a mystery for his friends and family to solve. A water-squatting community battles eviction from a harbor in a Pacific Northwest town, raising the question of who owns the water.
Imperiled Ocean by ocean journalist Laura Trethewey is a deeply reported work of narrative journalism that follows people as they head out to sea. What they discover holds inspiring and dire implications for the life of the ocean - and for all of us back on land.
As Imperiled Ocean unfolds, battles are fought, fortunes made, lives lost, and the ocean approaches an uncertain future. Behind this human drama, the ocean is growing ever more unstable, threatening to upend life on land. As we explore with Tretheway, we meet biologist Erin Stoddard tracking sturgeon in the Pacific Northwest. Unable to stop the development and pollution destroying the fish's habitat, Stoddard races to learn about the fish before it disappears. This prehistoric fish has survived more than 300 million years on earth and could hold important truths about how humanity might make itself amenable to a changing ocean. As a fisher and scientist, Erin's ability to listen to the water becomes a parable for what faces the ocean today. By eavesdropping on an imperiled world, he shows a way we can move forward to save the oceans we all share-through listening and discovery.
Imperiled Ocean by ocean journalist Laura Trethewey is a deeply reported work of narrative journalism that follows people as they head out to sea. What they discover holds inspiring and dire implications for the life of the ocean - and for all of us back on land.
As Imperiled Ocean unfolds, battles are fought, fortunes made, lives lost, and the ocean approaches an uncertain future. Behind this human drama, the ocean is growing ever more unstable, threatening to upend life on land. As we explore with Tretheway, we meet biologist Erin Stoddard tracking sturgeon in the Pacific Northwest. Unable to stop the development and pollution destroying the fish's habitat, Stoddard races to learn about the fish before it disappears. This prehistoric fish has survived more than 300 million years on earth and could hold important truths about how humanity might make itself amenable to a changing ocean. As a fisher and scientist, Erin's ability to listen to the water becomes a parable for what faces the ocean today. By eavesdropping on an imperiled world, he shows a way we can move forward to save the oceans we all share-through listening and discovery.
Reviews / Votes
"Drawing on Nancy Mitford's own poignant childhood memories from her exuberant novel "The Pursuit of Love," Laura Thompson vividly evokes the swarm of brilliant and beautiful sisters, and their lone brother, growing up carefree in a succession of country houses in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire." -- New York Times Book Review "Three million US citizens work on the ocean - in fishing, oil and gas, tourism and other industries and services. The global figure is three billion. Journalist Laura Trethewey set out in 2015 on 'an extended listening tour' to hear some of their stories... The vivid result-her debut-persuades us that 'the ocean's story is also our own.'" -- Nature Magazine "Laura Trethewey's The Imperiled Ocean . . . flourishes. The most frightening of these chapters is an account of the author's volunteer work for Ocean Legacy, in cleaning waste plastic from a remote British Columbia shoreline. There, in a lush wetland, "nature's cathedral," Ms. Trethewey finds that "plastic carpeted the ground. Plastic bottles, plastic buoys, Styrofoam everywhere, like someone had Photoshopped a garbage dump onto the forest." Ms. Tretheway writes that, "The most common motivation for going to sea, unsurprisingly, was money." Indeed, for reasons of money, migrants die, cruise ships steer around the law, and plastic is made, sold and discarded much faster than it can be collected and disposed of. We're enriching ourselves-some of us-into the sort of madness where our id boils up and consumes us." -- Richard Adams Carey - The Wall Street Journal "Thompson (The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters, 2016) focuses here on the eldest daughter, writing eloquently and with deep understanding about the Mitford family dynamics. Whether it was estrangement from her parents, conflicts with her sisters, or damaging romantic relationships, Thompson succeeds brilliantly in revealing how every aspect of Mitford's life was processed and dealt with in her writing. Thompson employs witty humor and uses it seamlessly, as Mitford did when she wrote about fascism, the Nazis, sexual orientation, adulthood, and beliefs." -- Booklist "The Imperiled Ocean will appeal to both seafaring types and broader audiences looking for personal stories about universal human experiences." -- Physics TodayMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
8 pages of color photographs
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64313-198-6 (9781643131986)
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
Laura Trethewey
Imperiled Ocean
E-Book
11/2019
1st Edition
Simon + Schuster Inc.
€18.78
Available for download
Person
Laura Trethewey is an ocean journalist and the senior writer and editor at Ocean.org, a multi-media story-telling site run by the Vancouver Aquarium. She has been published in Smithsonian Magazine, Courier International, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Hakai Magazine, and Canadian Geographic. She lives in Vancouver and this is her first book.