Ocean's End Travels Through Endangered Seas [Hardcover]

Colin Woodard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2000

In this landmark call to action, Colin Woodard confronts the major environmental problem of our time: the fate of the oceans. Once thought to be limitless reservoirs constantly renewing themselves, the oceans are in fact bounded seas that lie within our power to kill--and as Woodard convincingly shows, we are killing them, through pollution, harmful fishing practices, ignorance, and global warming.A comprehensive, eyewitness view of how and why the oceans are in trouble, Woodard’s book covers all the aspects of this complex subject--not just the collapse of the fisheries but also the deaths of coral reefs, the effects of sea-level rise, and the creation (through pollution) of massive dead zones, including the entire Black Sea and much of the Gulf of Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Take a pristine coral reef off the mangrove-forested coast of Belize, one that draws a handsome roster of fish and other sea creatures--and, therefore, a complement of scuba divers, sports fishermen, photographers, and other consumers of nature. Add an airstrip to serve these cash customers, then a hotel, then a seawall, then a golf course, then a desalination plant. In no time, thanks to the changes you've wrought on the coastal ecology, you'll have a dead reef in a dead patch of sea.

Such wanton destruction is the norm for today, writes science journalist Colin Woodard, who debarks from his travels on the world's seas with depressing and unremittingly bad news. One of the victims is the Black Sea of Eurasia, once a thriving extension of the Atlantic, now all but destroyed by "overfishing, oil spills, industrial discharges, nutrient pollution, wetlands destruction," and other ills. The ravaged Black Sea is mirrored in other places to which Woodard travels: the South Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, the Antarctic. In such places significant ecological transformations are occurring, all in a very short period of time, all perhaps irreversible, all certainly dangerous to the health of the biosphere. "The oceans," Woodard urges his readers to consider, "are finite and destructible. Wastes dumped and drained into the ocean do not disappear; they are neither economic nor ecological externalities. Likewise, marine fish and animals are not commodities like iron, wheat, or broilers; they are wildlife." Adding to works such as Carl Safina's Song for the Blue Ocean, Woodard makes a clear and urgent call for the reversal of all this destruction and for the protection of the world's waters. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on his travels across six continents and 100,000 miles, Woodard skillfully supports his argument that pollution, harmful fishing practices, ignorance and global warming are destroying the world's oceans. A global affairs writer for the Christian Science Monitor, he swam through algae and human sewage in the Dead Sea, dived among both pristine and bleached coral reefs in the Caribbean waters around Belize and braved the glaciated coasts of Antarctica to see the melting polar ice sheets. With vivid, detailed descriptions, he successfully brings to life the fascinating mysteries of marine science. Most engaging and poignant are Woodard's myriad interviews with people living alongside troubled oceans. From Newfoundland fishermen, out-of-work since the Grand Banks' massive cod stocks were exhausted, to beleaguered residents of the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands, who battle fast-encroaching waters and continued contamination from American nuclear weapons testing, he uncovers a colorful cast of scientists, officials, activists, divers and religious missionaries who attest to the human and economic costs of ecological decline. Woodard also outlines strategies that, he contends, must be taken to save our seas. Although his approach is somewhat one-sided, it is a sobering call to action for those interested in the plight of the world's oceans. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (March 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465015700
• ISBN-13: 978-0465015702
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,884,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Colin Woodard, an author and award-winning journalist, writes for The Christian Science Monitor, Down East, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. A native of Maine, he has reported from more than fifty foreign countries and six continents, and lived for more than four years in Eastern Europe during and after the collapse of communism.

He is the author of the New England bestseller "The Lobster Coast", a cultural and environmental history of coastal Maine; "Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas", a narrative non-fiction account of the deterioration of the world's oceans; and "The Republic of Pirates", a definitive biography of Blackbeard, Sam Bellamy, and other members of the most famous pirate gang in history.

His fourth book, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America", will be released by Viking Press Sept 29, 2011.

He lives in Portland, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and readable...Very timely subject, April 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ocean's End Travels Through Endangered Seas (Hardcover)

Woodard takes us on a world tour of the crisis facing the oceans. From the Antarctic ice sheet to the Cancer alley of the lower Mississippi, Woodard travelled the globe, interviewing policy makers, scientists, and ordinary people affected by the environmental changes.

The style is both readable and rigorous. Woodard takes great pains to make clear what is known and what is not, and while clearly reaching "green" conclusions, he is careful to examine different perspectives. Woodard is a master storyteller. The people he comes across in his travels come to life as each chapter unwinds another environmental and economic tragedy in progress.

This is a very human book. Woodard doesn't wallow in the "fish-kissers" moral approach to environmentalism (what did that shrimp do to you?). Nor does he delve too deeply into the minutia of the science affecting a particular ecosystem (Do mollusks have brains?) Instead, he makes a compelling case for how the ongoing degradation affects both the local people who rely on a part of the oceans directly and human life as a whole.

I highly recommend this book to all concerned world citizens. We are past worrying about what is the "right" thing to do with respect to the oceans. We need to be concerned about what can be done to prevent a major disruption in the world's economic, climate, and food supply systems.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coastal Policy Has Killed the Oceans!, November 4, 2001

By 

Steffen Schmidt, Ph.D. (Ames, IA and Ft. Lauderdale/Dania Beach, Florida, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ocean's End Travels Through Endangered Seas (Paperback)

Ocean's End is one of the most compelling examples of how bad Coastal Zone policy has destroyed vast areas of ocean and shore. It is not too strong a point that human beings in recent history have behaved themselves very, very badly as they looted the seas and dumped their waste and industrial toxins down river or directly into the sea. I am using this book in my International Integrated Coastal Zone Management class as the first assigned textbook. (...)

Why? Because I want my graduate students to first see how wonderful the world's oceans and coastal zones are and secondly, how incredibly stupid and short sighted we can be as we mismanage our responsibilities as stewards of these ecosystems. Colin Woodward has done a wonderful job of narrating a gripping, exciting, and enfuriating story from the killing of the Black Sea to the plundering of the Newfoundland Grand Banks and all of the other case studies in between.

This is a book worth reading and also one that is compellingly interesting and enjoyable. Take it on your next trip or read it and then take my web-based graduate class in International Coastal Management. You'll be ahead of yourself!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ocean's End, April 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ocean's End Travels Through Endangered Seas (Hardcover)

Balanced and written smartly, this book is impressive for its depth and scope of coverage. Moreover, Woodard's style of allowing the facts and science to speak above the opinions and guesses (which perhaps out number the former) is compelling. Excellence from a first-time author.