May 2009
The Unnatural History of the Sea
By Callum RobertsIn The Unnatural History of the Sea, Callum Roberts tells the story of humans and the oceans. He chronicles the seafarers of long ago, before tackling the heavy-duty fishing operations exhausting the seas today. It is a book of tragedy – of humans depleting a vast resource – but also one of hope. Mr. Roberts presents a compelling case for Marine Protected Areas. He believes in the resiliency of marine ecosystems; that their splendour and prosperity can be restored. "We can leave the oceans richer than we found them."
Do you agree with Mr. Roberts? Please read his book and send us your opinion!
Praise from Sylvia Earle, Explorer in Residence, National Geographic Society
"Thanks you, Callum Roberts, for your riveting, eloquent, compelling, and urgently important saga of what may be the greatest environmental tragedy of our time: the relentless, wholesale extraction of ocean wildlife globally. Thank you, too, for inspiring hope that we still have a chance to reverse the disastrous decline of the oceans, and thus secure our own future, as well as that of fish, whales, and clams."
Praise from Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Voyage of the Turtle
"This eloquent book, rendered with clarity and grace, is a true tale of tragedy. Callum Roberts summarizes the whole sweep of historical time from first European discovery of unimagined living ocean riches to unimaginable depletion and impoverishment of the sea. Yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel. And only by seeing what was can we hope to see what should be, and what must be restored."
Praise from Stuart Pimm, winner of the 2006 Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences and author of The World According to Pimm
"Oceans seem vast and untrammeled, but we have wrecked their living resources from offshore to the depths and to the limits of Antarctic ice. Callum Roberts tells this story with passion and elegance, and shows us what we must do to get our marine life back."
