Customer Reviews

Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Much of this book is written in the first person, which in places makes it very appealing, but in other places is distracting. My other gripe is that she jumps around a bit in her life time - so one chapter she talks about being the only woman on an expedition, and then she is the 1990's leader of NOAA and then we are back to her childhood haunts and back again.

That being said, it is a good read, full of facts and history. She worked in the sciences back when women were uncommon in the field. Back when there was no scuba gear and Jacques Cousteau was in to spear fishing, not conservation. Interesting stories, indeed! So, if you want an account of oceanography, past and present, its extreme limits and cool equipment from a personal point of view, pick this one up.

An inspiring story on the world of marine science. Sea Change takes you to the roots marine studies, and shows the rise of a marine biologist from a girl at the beach to a woman with a submarine. Anyone even faintly interested in the environment in general will love this book and it's hands on experiences with the world. Sea Change gives life lessons, and shows the real world of the sea, not the usual fairy tale of unbounding resources and perfect harmony. For the true marine fan, this book can serve as a novel as well as a learning experience. This is a delightful book that is easy to read and secretly educational. It enriches the mind while painting the imagination. I would reccomend this book to anyone willing to hear me out.

Sylvia really opened my eyes to the fragile nature of our environment and to the beauty and vastness of the oceans. I highly recommend this book for anyone with the slightest interest in our environment and nature. This book will make you interested in learning and doing more for the environment.

This book was full of information and facts that I didnt know and found interesting as well as a list of Marine Sanctuaries etc. Sylvia Earle has paved the way for many I really found some of her passages to be inspiring. I will now think everytime I eat shrimp! I would suggest this book to anyone interested in Marine Biology or the Ocean and its conservation.

Sylvia Earle's Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans serves as a clarion call to humans to take a closer look at the life blood of planet earth, the oceans. The thoughtful mixture of wonder and concern outlines Earle's years of study and thousands of hours working, playing and living beneath the ocean's surface. Tales of discovery and enlightenment are interspersed with easy to read discussions of geology, biology, engineering, law and policy, to weave a tale advocating better stewardship of our ocean resources. A biologist by formal training and an explorer and adventurer by natural curiosity, Earle reminds us of what we learned (but may have never fully grasped) in elementary school, that the planet which we inhabit is covered mostly in water. Earle begins by providing the reader first with a sense of geologic time over which the earth has taken shape and the oceans have formed. She points out that post-Columbus man has occupied this planet for a mere four seconds in the geologic year representing the earth's 4.6 billion year history. She notes modern oceanography, from its origin in the 1870s with the expedition of the HMS Challenger, covers less than one second on that time scale. Having humbled human knowledge of the seas on a temporal scale, Earle assuages our species ego touting the great advancements that have enabled humans to descend, albeit briefly, to the very deepest part of the oceans. She revels in the fact that she grew up in an era that saw Cousteau and Gagnan develop self contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) equipment. Divers, unfettered from the bulky diving helmets and shackled air hoses, could now have significantly greater access to, "where most of the living action on Earth is concentrated: underwater." She relishes the milestone achieved when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Picard descended in the bathysphere Trieste to a depth of 35,800 feet in the Marianas Trench. The visit to the deepest point in the ocean in 1960 in many ways the out paced the ascent of Mt. Everest. The author recounts her own fascination and relationship with the sea from her days as a child on the coasts of New Jersey and Florida to her study of marine flora in the Gulf of Mexico as a graduate student. In self-deprecating style, Earle outlines the series of circumstances that led from her participation in an otherwise all male oceanographic expedition in 1964 to an underwater living experiment in 1970 "manned" by an all-women research team. As her curiosity grew and technological development allowed, Earle began venturing into those depths and activities that had not yet hosted human activities, including early observations of humpback whales off the coast of Hawaii to the exploration of 1250 foot depths in an untethered specially designed diving suit. Each adventure strengthened her conviction that the ocean as a living system merited further research to increase human understanding of its beauty and importance in the biosphere . Earle's sense of wonder and desire to further scientific observation led her to co-found Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of deep sea remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and manned submersibles. Balancing the limits of the human body and the desire for feasible access to the ocean depths, Earle notes that while economics and human frailty may favor ROV's, "there is no completely satisfactory substitute for being there." Further, engineer Earle notes that while her own business venture is successful in making inroads to deep sea exploration, the United States lags behind other nations in developing a national policy toward ocean exploration which includes technological development of vehicles capable of plumbing the deepest ocean's depths. She illustrates her point in recounting her opportunity to descend more than two and one half miles, not in one of her own creations or one sponsored by the US, but in a Japanese submersible. In the second part of her book, Dr. Earle outlines the results of unbridled technology on the ocean and its resources. Fisheries, once thought inexhaustible have been decimated by commercial ventures, "ever reaping, never sowing." Earle notes that the world's ocean resources suffer a tragedy of the commons of global proportions, wherein the lack of enforceable rights to resources leads to a mindless grab for what can be taken today. She laments the effects of the well meant, but perhaps ill-implemented Magnuson Fishery and Conservation Management Act. While the goals of the Act are laudable, she notes, the establishment of Regional Fishery Councils controlled to a large degree by commercial fishing interests is akin to letting the "barracuda guard[] the fish coop." While the Act allowed the United States to control fishing access in its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, it merely drove out foreign fishing and replaced it with an overcapitalized domestic fishing industry. Earle also notes that scientists and policy makers have addressed the problem of overfishing with naive or weak analytical methods. Scientist Earle very succinctly questions the credibility of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) estimates of fish stocks, given the multiple and uncertain factors necessary to determine such an estimate. Such "scientific" methods may in fact do more harm than good, contends Earle, "the concept of MSY snares good minds, creates unrealistic expectations and encourages the setting of unattainable goals." She also paints a picture of myopic policies which have resulted in problems of bycatch of non-targeted fish, marine mammals, turtles and birds. The original goals of the MFCMA, asserts Earle, have been undermined by practices which have led to, "a squandering of natural assets deliberately encouraged by national policies." She does note that some of these problems are slowly being addressed. Congress, federal agencies and fishery councils are developing new methods such as individual fishing quotas (IFQs) and individual transferable quotas (ITQs) which may achieve a better success in conserving our ocean resource capital. And policy makers are shifting their population analyses away from MSY concepts. Earle also paints a picture of the "coral bleaching" of tropical reefs. Slight variations in ocean temperatures have dramatic effects. Wide expanses of reefs once alive and vibrant in color are now dying and leaving behind expansive white coral corpses. The decline of fish stocks and the death of coral communities are detrimental not only in their short term loss, but also in the long term role they play in the web of life. "Each species is a part of a planetary insurance policy for maintaining gradual, not cataclysmic, adjustments to changing environmental circumstances." Earle examines the far reaching effects of human activity on marine life. Toxins disposed of in the water infiltrate the marine food chain. Fish, polar bears, whales and penguins who have never directly encountered species homo sapien suffer increased levels of toxins in their organs and tissues. While ocean disposal may appear attractive to our species it is by no means. Highly persistent plastics and other wastes dumped at sea have led to a an alarming, but common, post- mortem determination of many forms of sea life: "death by debris." The casualties included an estimated 50,000 North Pacific Fur seals yearly in the 1980s. These more obvious concerns have led to international laws banning or restricting ocean dumping of certain wastes. Earle rounds out her discussion of man-made threats to the ocean environment with eyewitness accounts of the Exxon Valdez spill and the act of environmental terrorism perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf. The former disaster affected some of the world's most pristine coastline, a stretch the size of California's shore. The latter spill was an intentional dumping of the equivalent of 50 Valdez spills. In the final part of her book,

Sea Change is a marine science book written by a master marine scientists. There are very few people around these days who seem to be in full command (or nearly so) of their subject. Sylvia Earle appears to be one of these rare specimens. I think that young scientists also can learn quite a bit through the experiences and personal insights of great scholars like Dr. Earle, insights that usually are not shared with all students, insights, that are normally learned by often painfull experience. Sea Change shows us the development of a science, of an important part of our world, our society and it shows us the personal development of a fascinating woman. If you want to know scientific details about marine science, go and buy a textbook. If you want to know how one of the greatest marine scientists thinks, buy Sea Change.

Sylvia Earle's Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans serves as a clarion call to humans to take a closer look at the life blood of planet earth, the oceans. The thoughtful mixture of wonder and concern outlines Earle's years of study and thousands of hours working, playing and living beneath the ocean's surface. Tales of discovery and enlightenment are interspersed with easy to read discussions of geology, biology, engineering, law and policy, to weave a tale advocating better stewardship of our ocean resources. A biologist by formal training and an explorer and adventurer by natural curiosity, Earle reminds us of what we learned (but may have never fully grasped) in elementary school, that the planet which we inhabit is covered mostly in water. Earle begins by providing the reader first with a sense of geologic time over which the earth has taken shape and the oceans have formed. She points out that post-Columbus man has occupied this planet for a mere four seconds in the geologic year representing the earth's 4.6 billion year history. She notes modern oceanography, from its origin in the 1870s with the expedition of the HMS Challenger, covers less than one second on that time scale. Having humbled human knowledge of the seas on a temporal scale, Earle assuages our species ego touting the great advancements that have enabled humans to descend, albeit briefly, to the very deepest part of the oceans. She revels in the fact that she grew up in an era that saw Cousteau and Gagnan develop self contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) equipment. Divers, unfettered from the bulky diving helmets and shackled air hoses, could now have significantly greater access to, "where most of the living action on Earth is concentrated: underwater." She relishes the milestone achieved when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Picard descended in the bathysphere Trieste to a depth of 35,800 feet in the Marianas Trench. The visit to the deepest point in the ocean in 1960 in many ways the out paced the ascent of Mt. Everest. The author recounts her own fascination and relationship with the sea from her days as a child on the coasts of New Jersey and Florida to her study of marine flora in the Gulf of Mexico as a graduate student. In self-deprecating style, Earle outlines the series of circumstances that led from her participation in an otherwise all male oceanographic expedition in 1964 to an underwater living experiment in 1970 "manned" by an all-women research team. As her curiosity grew and technological development allowed, Earle began venturing into those depths and activities that had not yet hosted human activities, including early observations of humpback whales off the coast of Hawaii to the exploration of 1250 foot depths in an untethered specially designed diving suit. Each adventure strengthened her conviction that the ocean as a living system merited further research to increase human understanding of its beauty and importance in the biosphere . Earle's sense of wonder and desire to further scientific observation led her to co-found Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of deep sea remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and manned submersibles. Balancing the limits of the human body and the desire for feasible access to the ocean depths, Earle notes that while economics and human frailty may favor ROV's, "there is no completely satisfactory substitute for being there." Further, engineer Earle notes that while her own business venture is successful in making inroads to deep sea exploration, the United States lags behind other nations in developing a national policy toward ocean exploration which includes technological development of vehicles capable of plumbing the deepest ocean's depths. She illustrates her point in recounting her opportunity to descend more than two and one half miles, not in one of her own creations or one sponsored by the US, but in a Japanese submersible. In the second part of her book, Dr. Earle outlines the results of unbridled technology on the ocean and its resources. Fisheries, once thought inexhaustible have been decimated by commercial ventures, "ever reaping, never sowing." Earle notes that the world's ocean resources suffer a tragedy of the commons of global proportions, wherein the lack of enforceable rights to resources leads to a mindless grab for what can be taken today. She laments the effects of the well meant, but perhaps ill-implemented Magnuson Fishery and Conservation Management Act. While the goals of the Act are laudable, she notes, the establishment of Regional Fishery Councils controlled to a large degree by commercial fishing interests is akin to letting the "barracuda guard[] the fish coop." While the Act allowed the United States to control fishing access in its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, it merely drove out foreign fishing and replaced it with an overcapitalized domestic fishing industry. Earle also notes that scientists and policy makers have addressed the problem of overfishing with naive or weak analytical methods. Scientist Earle very succinctly questions the credibility of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) estimates of fish stocks, given the multiple and uncertain factors necessary to determine such an estimate. Such "scientific" methods may in fact do more harm than good, contends Earle, "the concept of MSY snares good minds, creates unrealistic expectations and encourages the setting of unattainable goals." She also paints a picture of myopic policies which have resulted in problems of bycatch of non-targeted fish, marine mammals, turtles and birds. The original goals of the MFCMA, asserts Earle, have been undermined by practices which have led to, "a squandering of natural assets deliberately encouraged by national policies." She does note that some of these problems are slowly being addressed. Congress, federal agencies and fishery councils are developing new methods such as individual fishing quotas (IFQs) and individual transferable quotas (ITQs) which may achieve a better success in conserving our ocean resource capital. And policy makers are shifting their population analyses away from MSY concepts. Earle also paints a picture of the "coral bleaching" of tropical reefs. Slight variations in ocean temperatures have dramatic effects. Wide expanses of reefs once alive and vibrant in color are now dying and leaving behind expansive white coral corpses. The decline of fish stocks and the death of coral communities are detrimental not only in their short term loss, but also in the long term role they play in the web of life. "Each species is a part of a planetary insurance policy for maintaining gradual, not cataclysmic, adjustments to changing environmental circumstances." Earle examines the far reaching effects of human activity on marine life. Toxins disposed of in the water infiltrate the marine food chain. Fish, polar bears, whales and penguins who have never directly encountered species homo sapien suffer increased levels of toxins in their organs and tissues. While ocean disposal may appear attractive to our species it is by no means. Highly persistent plastics and other wastes dumped at sea have led to a an alarming, but common, post- mortem determination of many forms of sea life: "death by debris." The casualties included an estimated 50,000 North Pacific Fur seals yearly in the 1980s. These more obvious concerns have led to international laws banning or restricting ocean dumping of certain wastes. Earle rounds out her discussion of man-made threats to the ocean environment with eyewitness accounts of the Exxon Valdez spill and the act of environmental terrorism perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf. The former disaster affected some of the world's most pristine coastline, a stretch the size of California's shore. The latter spill was an intentional dumping of the equivalent of 50 Valdez spills. In the final

This book provides an interesting overview of the development of oceanographic and marine biological sciences. It does a fine job of detailing the envirobnmental issues effecting the ocean in a pretty objective maner. The book focusses too much on the author's (sometimes unrelated) experience, however. I wasn't looking for an autobiography, I wanted to understand the subject matter better. Some background about the author is useful, but it's overdone here in my opinion.

I grew up in the desert around Yuma, Arizona, but, while still a great fan of deserts, I always wished for more contact with the sea. Unfortunately my ideal oceanic habitat is under major attack around the world. During my early youth I often read that the sea contained vast renewable resources which, unlike oil, gas, coal and metals, were inexhaustible. These books were wrong about this, as the collapse of the Atlantic fisheries over the last decade have shown, not to mention the ongoing collapse of the Pacific coast salmon fisheries, especially in California.

Sylvia Earle, who was appointed as Chief Scientist at NOAA by the George H. W. Bush administration in 1990 and was retained by the Clinton administration until 1992, is an expert on the sea and its biota. She also pioneered in some major advances of deep sea exploration, including actually living in an underwater laboratory and taking part in record- breaking untethered deep sea diving. In "Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans" she puts her finger exactly on the problems faced by oceanic life-a classic "tragedy of the commons".

Earle describes the exploration and exploitation of the oceans from a personal perspective, which I think is a plus. It makes the book more readable and interesting. She also describes the problems associated with trying to educate the public and unfortunately the government in the intricate problems associated with the oceans. I only wish that humans had followed her advice on saving the oceans, given in 1995, but not yet implemented, despite the growing understanding that time is running out.

I picked up Dr. Earle's book at the University of Washington book store while on vacation in Seattle and Vancouver. Her points were well illustrated by the problems surrounding the salmon fisheries in Washington and the possible fate of the local pods of orcas ("killer whales") off Vancouver that depend on them for food. I thought of these issues as I watched the orcas break the surface around me, occasionally also leaping or spy hopping. It will be a sad day if and when these magnificent beasts no longer prowl the San Juan Islands.

I hope many people read "Sea Change", for we, as a species, require a real change of heart if we are to survive the next century. So far I've not seen the general will to face the coming storm and try to make it less destructive. Read this book! It may just make you understand the seriousness of the situation in which we now find ourselves.

It was a real awakening reading this book. I now see that everything we do affects the ocean. Dr. Earle shares amazing experiences and insights through her ambitious career. It's a beautifully-written and genuine book that allows you to enjoy a sense of adventure and wonder, while also taking in the reality of escalating threats on the blue heart of our planet. Dr. Earle makes a powerful case that we have only a small ten year window to save the ocean on which our health and well-being depends. If everyone read this book, dramatic and important sea changes would begin tomorrow.