Customer Reviews

50 Ways to Save the Ocean (Inner Ocean Action Guide)

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Fifty Ways To Save The Ocean by environmental activist David Helvarg (founder of Blue Frontier) is an informed introduction to the innovative ways anyone can use to help preserve Earth's oceans and aquatic-life. Expertly guiding readers through diverse ways to effectively contribute to bettering the condition the great oceans, Fifty Ways To Save The Ocean provides a keen understanding of which fish should not be eaten and which species are endangered or could impact adversely human health; how to save energy and how that might help out the seas; proper diving, surfing, and tide pool equipment; support for local marine education; and keeping an ocean-friendly aquarium. Fifty Ways To Save The Ocean is enthusiastically recommended reading, especially for environmentalists hoping to do their part in contributing to the best health of Mother Earth's oceanic environments.

I picked up a copy of this book at the 2007 Hawai'i Conservation Conference, where author David Helvarg was a keynote speaker. Helvarg is president of the Blue Frontier Campaign, an ocean advocacy group.

50 Ways to Save the Ocean is a book with a mission. That mission is to convince the reader that:

1. The oceans are in trouble and need your help.

2. There are things each person can do to assist in the conservation of our oceanic resources, even if you live in Kansas.

Most of the ideas are good, and I appreciate that Helvarg went beyond the "donate money to..." strategies that most Americans get in their weekly mail solicitations (although he encourages you to donate money to a variety of causes and organizations). He promotes activism: volunteering, writing, and lobbying. He notes the power of consumerism in affecting how the ocean's resources are exploited ("follow the money").

I found that I do about 3/4 of the actions he recommends. The question is, how does this information get into the hands of those who are not already involved in ocean protection issues?

This book is truly an excellent resource for those of us that are concerned about the well-being of our environment but feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the world's enviromental issues. Here is a book that gives us all really practical, realistic, and fantastic ways to help save our oceans! I absolutely loved this book, and had so much fun doing many of the suggestions (especially going to an aquarium, eating organic foods, going surfing with my kids, and maintaining an ocean-friendly driveway). All of the suggestions are not only informative but also very easy to do and fun!

This is an excellent book to help teach your family about caring for our oceans! The ideas and illustrations are fantastic to read with kids. Almost all of the suggestions can be accomplished as a family, too. Going to the beach, going on a whale-watching trip, visiting tide pools, eating healthy and sustainable seafood, etc., are all great family activities! This book makes it easy to get your whole family together and interested in saving our oceans. Also really helpful in giving extra meaning to family activities, as everything can be prefaced with an interesting suggestion from this book. It will certainly also improve your kids' self-esteem, knowing they are helping the environment. On top of that, it is a great read!

If you saw An Inconvenient Truth and are wondering what you and your family can do about global warming, take a look at 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. It will help you through the thicket with lots of practical and yes, simple, ways each of us can participate in saving our planet.

As someone who spent community service hours educating children on the environment and monitoring the actual effects on rivers by commercial industries, I'm insulted.

What idiot can't tell nitrogen for nitrites? Nitrogen HELPS soil and is 80% of our air. NITRITES cause anaerobic red algae blooms.

Is the cause farming? No, it's not processing farm runnoff. Which, by the way, organic farming crates more of.

The books recommends more never-thought-through stuff like having a wedding at a beach (beach wedding are monitored and cleaned up professionally or it is illegal to have a wedding and all that trash, depending on the beach. The beaches that are worse off due to trash, by the way, are the ones where it's illegal) to donating to charities without recommending researching where your money actually goes, to complaining to the manager if you see endangered species on the menu of a restaurant (this is an almost entirely made up myth; managers know where their food comes from, so if they serve endangered species, that's a job for the police), to boycotting tortoise shell products (another job for the police).

This book depends on the gimmick of saving the environment, uses bad logic, offers nothing but guilt trips and ideas too silly for a Captain Planet episode.

Research a good charity or organization that really gets things done and gets their own homework right too. Even if you don't give, they'll answer your questions on how you can still help the environment, now matter where you live.