Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean [Kindle Edition]

Osha Gray Davidson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pulitzer-nominee Davidson (The Best of Enemies) offers the reader an eloquent ecocautionary tale wrapped in a scientific mystery. Sea turtles have thrived for more than 100 million years. Now their existence is threatened not only by human depredation but also by a virulent scourge of unknown origin. In the 1930s, marine biologists began to notice ugly growths on some aquarium turtle specimens. Fibropapillomatosis are nonmalignant tumors that endanger the world's sea turtle population through a range of fatal complications. The pandemic has spread throughout the world's oceans with devastating effects on these docile sea-dwelling reptiles. From remote Pacific atolls to Key West, the author provides an underwater travelogue in search of an answer to the disease's origin. Along the way, we meet an entourage of fascinating marine biologists, veterinarians and dedicated lay people in a common quest for both a cause and a cure. With a quick-flowing narrative sparkling with wit, Davidson also provides anecdotal episodes about other similarly intriguing situations in the natural world. Tales of 18th-century Russian arctic explorers and sea cows, Columbus's experiences with turtles in the Caribbean, captive elephants in Florida, the British Museum's rarities, snake aficionados and poisonous Australian bacterial plumes are deftly combined to add breadth, depth and pathos to the story. Readers interested in ecology and animals, as well as those who value strong prose, will be intrigued and troubled by this book. Photos not seen by PW.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A recent trend in science books for the general public is to write the "biography of an idea." Extending the genre to natural history and ecology, this book follows the attempts of marine scientists, veterinarians, and turtle lovers to unravel the causes and find a cure for fibropappilomatosis (FP), a serious epidemic disease currently devastating the green sea turtle population worldwide. Using FP research as a theme, Davidson (The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef) discusses marine ecology, disease transmission, overfishing, the migration of alien species between ocean basins, and especially the human factor in the spread of disease and pollution throughout the oceans. The author makes complex material understandable to the lay reader, though the book's rambling quality suggests that he may be trying to cover too much in too few pages. Marine turtles have been generally ignored by the public, overshadowed by whales and dolphins; this book provides some well-deserved attention to the preservation of these valuable animals. Recommended for all public and academic libraries as well as all libraries where there is interest in ecology, marine science, and zoology. Margaret Rioux, MBL/WHOI Lib., Woods Hole, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 3712 KB
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; Pbk. Ed edition (August 31, 2001)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001GMAG5U
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious Waters...., February 20, 2004

By 

J. J. Phelps "auntiejudi" (seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean (Paperback)

Unequivocally, I loved this book! Parts biological mystery, turtle evolution, naturalist history and love story to the sea, it's wrapped up in very engaging prose. It made me fall in love with the creatures!! And apparently I'm not the only one...

In a book I read last year, "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made," the authors' dedicated the book to a green sea turtle!! It read:

"To the green sea turtle who twenty-five years ago bumped the bottom of a boat in Key West, Florida, scaring a little girl. Those tears and this book are for you and your descendants."

Here's hoping that turtle's descendants will STILL be around in another 25 years! But the more people who read this book, the more attention these endangered animals will deservedly get.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Read About Fate of Sea Turtles and the Oceans, February 12, 2004

By 

Seattle Reader on Turtles (Seattle, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean (Paperback)

Fire In the Turtle House is a thorough, investigative account of many dedicated marine biologist, scientists, and turtle lovers trying to figure out how and why green sea turtles have become afflicted with fibropamillomatosis. The virus is killing off the specie in untold numbers and will lead to their extinction. By the reading the book not only did I learn about sea turtles, and how they live and breed, but I got an enormous education in marine biology and how the ocean is a precious habitat for these creatures. The author helped me understand by giving specific examples as to how man is contributing to the ocean's decline and thus sea life's decline. This isn't a diatribe on man but a well thought out provocative look at a very important topic told so that everyone can understand. There is a quote in the book by Arthur C. Clarke that says that our planet should not of been called Earth but perhaps "Oceana." Very true when most of the planet is made up of water, as are we. My eyes have been open to the truth of this statement after reading Fire in the Turtle House.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bad News, And Not Just For Turtles, January 11, 2002

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean (Hardcover)

You didn't need to be told that humans are ruining natural environments all over the place. In the competition for survival, we are winning, beating out competitors, causing havoc, and claiming victory, however short term it may be. It is only particular aspects of the problem that are news, and we do need to be told of them for the purpose, if nothing more, of keeping our eyes open to the onslaught. Here is an aspect that you may not know about: green sea turtles are being killed off by a mysterious illness. A sincere and thoughtful book will tell you of the problem, if you can stand to hear about it: _Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean_ (PublicAffairs) by Osha Gray Davidson. Davidson is a fine storyteller, and has pulled the history of sea turtles together with documentation about their current fate, as well as giving vivid portraits of the idiosyncratic turtle fans who are trying to do something about the turtles' problem. The particular problem for them is serious, and as Davidson's subtitle tells, it reflects a general and larger disaster.

The green sea turtle has survived for over a hundred million years, and it simply may not be around much longer. It has been overhunted, but as Davidson makes clear, overhunting is so cause-and-effect obvious that it is often blamed as the reason extinctions happen. However, a hundred years ago we were learning that the indirect methods of ignorance and indifference were far more efficient vectors of biological collapse by means of habitat destruction. We are also turning coastal waters into a breeding ground for a revolting disease called fibropapillomatosis, or FP for short. Tumors sprout on the flippers restricting motion, and around the eyes causing blindness, and within the guts causing eventual death. They are warty or smooth, and leeches live in them for the blood supply, and blood flukes lay eggs in them. In 1986 researchers were shocked that there were outbreaks of the disease in both Florida and Hawaii. The exact mechanism of the disease is in doubt, but what is not in doubt is that turtles with this disgusting and sad disease come from the areas which are most highly polluted, by fertilizers and sewage, or have sea beds gouged by trawling. Turtles from the few remaining pristine areas are so far unaffected, but no ocean creature will be unaffected by ocean temperature change, which is another way the sea becomes friendly to pathogens.

Davidson's work is full of facts and scientific information, and skillful portraits of people involved in trying to do something about this horrendous illness. If there is any defect in his book, it is that it spends its bulk explaining the problem carefully, and leaves only a few paragraphs for instruction on what we can do, and such instruction is general: "We could stop treating the ocean as if it were the world's largest garbage dump and start treating it like the sacred source of all life that it is... We could balance growth and development with habitat preservation. We could, finally, get serious about stopping global warming." Davidson is no pessimist, but sadly, it is probable that our "we coulds" are not going to change into "we wills" in time to stop this disaster, and the others connected to it.