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Saved By the Sea: A Love Story with Fish

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Beautiful autobiography of one of the most interesting lives and best writers of these times. The author's ability to clearly express the changes in the ocean, while telling us his own connection to the sea, makes this book one of the most informative, interesting and exciting environmental books out there.

David Helvarg uses his great talent for writing to inform the reader about the power and importance of the ocean in each of our lives. The data and analysis leaves the reader with a wealth of knowledge. Be prepared to learn, while laughing, smiling and tearing up!

David Helvarg has a wonderful, easy to read style that is both heartfelt and humorous. Slightly irreverent and earnest without preaching, his travels and life take you from North Pole to South and to wonderful wet places in between. You will want to visit them all. You will want to save them all. Saved By the Sea is a love story, adventure and biography of an environmental warrior dedicated to reminding us to treasure and preserve beautiful things.

I love David Helvarg's books, and this latest one is great too. This book is full of stories I will always remember. It is well-written, entertaining, touching and informative.

David Helvarg's book is both a reflection on the losses of those dear to him over the course of a lifetime of activism, investigating and reporting, and a call to all of us to save what we all must understand is vital to all life: the sea. I connected with this book in so many ways: I, too, spent my childhood in New Jersey - in my case "going crabbing" with my grandfather in the backwaters of Barnegat Bay. I bodysurfed the beaches in San Diego and became a local steward, volunteering to protect our shoreline. And I felt the sadness as my sister-in-law, also named Nancy, lost her battle to breast cancer -- resulting in my involvement in the local Komen for the Cure affiliate.

I finished the book last week and passed it on to my 15 year old son who quoted the disturbing data on the state of the sea in a paper he wrote. He is working on a speech he is writing regarding the contradictions inherent in how humans deal with sharks, again, based upon what he learned from this book. "Saved By The Sea: A Love Story with Fish" is not only inspiring, but is a perfect vehicle to help us pass the torch of hope to the next generation. Buy it and share it with you kids!

David Helvarg has had his share of tough losses. His parents, his first and greatest love, his sister, and quite a few friends. While loved ones come and go, he turns his attention to a variety of other interests and distractions. But the sea always remains there for him, the one steady thing that endures in his life. It both rejuvenates his spirit and beckons him to begin a new focus. By working to save the sea, it seems that Helvarg saves himself. I think this extremely informative book would appeal to anyone who loves the ocean, anyone whose lost great loves, and anyone looking for one's place in the world.

The recent (and still ongoing) Gulf of Mexico massacre, only the latest in a long litany of catastrophes resulting from our species' excessive exploitation of, and heedless indifference to, our own one-and-only planetary habitat, brings home to us yet again what most readers undoubtedly know all too well from personal experience: that our oceans are in great peril and our marine resources are in great jeopardy. Still, we may not be fully cognizant of just how bad the situation really is, nor how, regardless of our political leanings, as a community of the concerned we might pool our resources (and our rage) to make a last-ditch effort, admittedly against great odds, to turn the proverbial tide.

To get that knowledge -- and on the positive side to get ignited about hopeful aspects of the situation -- I strongly recommend David Helvarg's memoir, Saved By The Sea: A Love Story with Fish, recently published by Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Press. Helvarg is a scuba diver and, in his capacity as an environmental journalist (as well as a battle-weary war correspondent) a professional island-hopper. His career-long focus on saving the world's marine resources from utter destruction - in other words, on saving ourselves from ourselves - is something that all of us interested in the human cause must applaud and support at least as loudly as his fellow environmentalists.

This is not the place for a full-blown book précis, but if only to encourage others to get hold of his latest memoir - among other works Helvarg is also the author of The War Against the Greens and Rescue Warriors, a book on the U.S. Coast Guard - let me mention just a few random points that Helvarg makes:

Salt water covers 71% of the Earth's surface and provides 97% of its livable habitat, yet only an estimated 4% remains pristine, unpolluted by wholesale human disregard. Incidentally, like our planet, our bodies, too, are 71% salt water, our blood exactly as salty as the sea was when our ancestors emerged from it;

Although the tropical rain forests have been called the lungs of the planet, the oceans actually absorb far greater amounts of carbon dioxide - 2.5 billion tons annually -- making Earth livable, that is, our atmosphere breathable. Tamper with that, and you tamper with life itself - our lives;

Rapid warming linked to human activity on the Antarctic Peninsula has already caused massive glacial retreat and the collapse of Adélie penguin colonies, as the U.S. and a host of other countries continue to search out ways to "develop" the Arctic region despite warnings of irreversible melting;

To date scientists have mapped less than 10% of our oceans, though 100% of the Moon and Mars have been mapped. Ironically, these selfsame scientists are looking for water on those other planets, water as the source of life, whereas here we are on Earth, surrounded by water, and few people seem to give a damn;

Every year some five to eight humans are killed by sharks worldwide, while we kill one hundred million of them just for their fins, emptying the seas of these apex predators just as in a presumably more primitive, savage, and ignorant era we rid our savannas and plains of saber-toothed tigers and mammoths;

And not only sharks seem soon fated for an unimaginable, unfathomable extinction. If present practice continues, many other large pelagic and benthic species, including tuna, marlin, goliath grouper, halibut, and cod, will share the same fate. Indeed, since the 1950s their numbers have declined by a whopping 90% due in large part to a commercial fisheries industry as callously indifferent to the future as the oil industry that fuels their ships;

Major bleaching of tropical coral reefs and illegal fishing in Fiji and elsewhere have led to the collapse of marine life in many island-nation waters.

But enough of these sobering facts. What Helvarg constructs of them in his poetically poignant memoir is far more important. "You can argue about tourist revenues and fishing licenses and other ways that nature generates income, but this is the real value of protecting wildlands, beaches, and seas," he says after a last outing to Point Reyes with his terminally ill lover of many years. "Beyond their intrinsic worth and productivity, they also provide us the escape, sanctuary, and spiritual renewal we need in times of pain and trouble."

Gary Soucie, a committed environmentalist who years ago served as executive editor for Audubon Magazine, was once asked what fish he liked most. To which he replied, "I've never met a fish I didn't love." Helvarg clearly shares that view, and since all marine species are dependent on one another, and we on them, it's a sentiment with which all of us can only agree.

Helvarg's memoir, Saved By The Sea, is essentially a multi-faceted, multi-species love story, which is reason enough for all to read it.

David shares his story in such an poignant and heartfelt way. It is such a treat to get to know him better and be (re)inspired by his dedication and passion. A must-read for anyone who has ever felt any connection with the ocean - he is a kindred spirit to many of us.

I really enjoyed this autobiography of a truly fascinating man. From covering the front line of numerous wars to the front line of the battle to protect the oceans that have always provided a sense of serenity in otherwise often harsh and unforgiving circumstances. This was one of the best books I've read in a long time as you can tell the author is truly writing from his heart.