Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur (Paperback)

by Carl Safina (Author) "Welcome to Matura," the night-darkened sign had said, "Home of the Leatherback Turtles..." (more)
Key Phrases: turtle conservation network, longline boats, juvenile turtles, Fisheries Service, United States, Costa Rica (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. MacArthur fellow and John Burroughs Award–winner Safina (Song for the Blue Ocean) presents an impassioned account of the plight of ocean-dwelling turtles, especially the largest, the leatherback, "the closest thing we have to a living dinosaur." Leatherbacks, which can weigh over a ton, range the oceans to nesting sites on beaches along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. Safina travels to many of these sites, bringing the reader into the turtles' world as he describes how the females leave the ocean, cross sandy beaches, dig huge pits using their flippers as spades, lay their eggs and then creep back into the sea. He shows how precarious this world is; nature's dangers are always present, but it's human activities that threaten the turtles with extinction: poaching, longline fishing nets in which the turtles can drown and depletion of the turtles' food supply due to overfishing and global warming. There are remedies, such as intensive nest-saving programs, but these take time to implement, and time is running out for the turtles. Safina's eloquent book is a battle cry in the struggle for the survival of one of the world's most beautiful and endangered creatures. Maps. (June 27)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–This book is Safina's personal journal of the migration of the leatherback, loggerhead, and green turtles. These aquatic creatures of reptilian descent wander throughout the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Eventually they die in captivity because they don't understand boundaries. This limitless ocean life is in jeopardy due to long-line fishing, poaching, and commercial development along the beaches of Trinidad and Mexico, where they nest. The author is passionate about conservation efforts, describing the eco-tourist work of Nature Seekers and the legal efforts of Oceana in protecting the now critically endangered leatherback turtles. More than a chronicle of attempts to save the species, Turtle captures the physical magnitude of these ancient creatures and the repetitive calm of their endless travels. Safina's simple and deeply personal style captures both the mystery of the leatherbacks' life cycle and the need to develop a global understanding of their plight to survive. This title will quickly become a part of the classroom libraries of those teaching life science and ecology.–Brigeen Radoicich, Fresno County Office of Education, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805083189
• ISBN-13: 978-0805083187
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,736 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #8 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Fauna > Reptiles & Amphibians
  #10 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Ecosystems
  #37 in	Books > Science > Nature & Ecology > Oceans & Seas

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, fascinating accounts, July 22, 2006

By	D. J. Nardi "Dominic J. Nardi, Jr." (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur (Hardcover)

This book is very well-written and entertaining. Mr. Safina knows some interesting people doing interesting work on leatherbacks. He provides a good account of leatherback biology and population statistics (his description of how they stay warm in cold water is particularly good). He covers all of the sea turtle species to some degree, but keeps his focus on leatherbacks.

However, if you are looking just for a few facts and figures on sea turtles, you are missing much of what this book has to offer. Mr. Safina spends much time showing readers the insides of the industries, fishermen, coastal villages, and other people who affect sea turtles. For someone who does not live near the sea, having a narrator sailing with real American fishermen in the 21st century, giving voice to their views, was a real eye-opener. Furthermore, Mr. Safina touched upon the role of other institutions, from law to religion, that affect the sea turtles. Fortunately, Mr. Safina understands these people and various aspects of society, something that makes him a better conservationist and better author.

If you want to learn a lot and be awed by the leatherbacks, read this book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Around the World with a Living Fossil, June 28, 2006

By	David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur (Hardcover)

When I first opened Carl Safina's new book, "Voyage of the Turtle : In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur," I felt a sense of being with him on the beach at Matura, Trinidad. This was not just because of his description of the area, which was quite accurate and very well done, but because I was with a group of biologists on this same beach seven years ago at night under a waning gibbous moon and in view of the Atlantic waves. We, like Safina and his group, were waiting for the signal that would indicate that one of the Nature Seeker scouts had discovered a female leatherback turtle coming ashore. We were drenched by two tropical rainstorms before the light down the beach brought us to our feet and, following our guide, to the sight of the boulder-like turtle maneuvering on the beach sand until she found the right spot to settle in and lay her eggs. What followed is well described by Safina. It was a night and early morning I'll never forget. I even got to touch the 800 lb monster! To add to the tropical atmosphere, the fireflies in the forest that edged the beach were mirrored in the sky by Alpha and Beta Centauri and the Southern Cross, the latter just visible in the moonlight during the early part of the night. Finally, as we walked back along the beach, we nearly stumbled over a second female.

Safina has captured the magic of that Trinidadian beach, and he goes on to describe further wonders relating to this largest of all living turtles and the other sea turtles. The leatherback is a huge turtle (males are even larger than females) that ranges whole oceans and is found in virtually all of the Atlantic and Pacific. Only recently have the movements of individual turtles been well documented and this has revealed an astonishing fact- they can easily cross the Pacific or travel from Trinidad to the North Atlantic off Canada and then to Africa! Once more these giant leatherbacks feed on jellyfish! Thus the very solid turtles are sustained by the most unsubstantial seeming large organisms on the planet!

Safina has written a wonderful book on the leatherback and other sea turtles. All of these giants have suffered at man's hands- directly and indirectly. Yet in some areas conservation efforts have paid off. Leatherback numbers are increasing along Florida and on Trinidad beaches. Still, the battle is far from won, for this and the other sea turtles. If you would taste the wonders of these fascinating sea creatures and understand why they should be protected, this great book is a good place to start.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative and deeply moving masterpiece, June 30, 2006

By	Cynthia Tuthill (Menlo Park, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur (Hardcover)

This third book of Carl Safina's is every bit as magical and enthralling as his first two. Once again we are taken on a journey throughout the world, with stop-overs in places that I thought I understood (Florida, Trinidad, Costa Rica, New Guinea) but that are clearly filled with fascinating persons and practices that are strikingly new -- and uplifting -- to me. I was moved by the plight of turtles, such glorious beings, and saddened to realize how their only real danger are human practices ... and yet Safina probes each situation deeply enough to find the wildly varied knots of dedicated people who are succeeding in helping to bring these deserving creatures back from the edge of extinction. I was thrilled to find that Safina had written another book -- his other two are amonsgt my favorites of all time -- and this one was just as intriquing and poetic and important as I could have hoped.