WHAT THE WILD SEA CAN BE

A passionate look at how saving the seas is an essential part of saving ourselves.

Scales is a highly respected marine biologist, and her books, including The Brilliant Abyss and Spirals in Time, are authoritative and entertaining. In her latest, the author turns her attention to the many problems facing the planet’s oceans, from warming water temperatures to resource exploitation to pollution. Oceans have always been a dynamic system, but now, writes Scales, change is happening faster than marine animals and plant life can adapt, putting key species in danger across the world. Underlining the link between the ocean environment and human life, she examines unusual subjects such as kelp forests, which have a critical role in carbon absorption and are now under significant pressure. Increases in temperatures are affecting plankton growth, which will echo through the food chain. Limits on fish catches, and even outright bans, have proven to be effective in rebuilding stocks. Reintroducing animals such as sea otters in areas where they have disappeared has been successful, and the approach has had the added effect of regenerating kelp forests. There are also promising experiments in which corals have been cross-pollinated to create more heat-resistant types, which could have widespread positive effects for reefs worldwide. The collection of floating plastic garbage is underway, but the cleanup is a massive undertaking. Scales is pleased to see these measures, but she sees them as treating symptoms while the fundamental causes remain. She notes that she is half-pessimistic and half-optimistic about the future. “Living together on this blue planet, we are all ocean people,” she writes. “We all depend on healthy seas for the air we breathe, for the falling rain, for the livable world we inhabit.”

The author’s writing is lucid and compelling, featuring a nice mix of personal experience and convincing scientific data.