Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving Our Seas

Book Description

An oil tanker breaks up off the coast of Spain, contaminating beaches and killing over 100,000 birds. Colorful coral reefs turn a deathly white around the world. Six whales die in the Bahamas from bleeding near their ears after the Navy tests an active sonar system there. After so much bad news, people are thirsting for workable solutions to the oceans crisis.

Heal the Ocean provides a refreshing change in the literature by emphasizing success stories in the struggle to save the seas. The author -- a marine ecologist dedicated to protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems -- first describes the nature of ocean environments, and then discusses current and emerging threats, including pollution, overfishing, poor land use, deep sea mining, and the search for new energy sources. Heal the Ocean then urges that we build upon efforts that have successfully countered such threats, including:

- allowing natural processes to restore the San Francisco Bay and Delta
- innovative wastewater treatment at Ecoparque, Baja California
- the world's first scientifically designed marine reserve network in California's Channel Islands
- traditional stewardship of land and sea by native Hawaiians
- economic incentives for sustainable fishing in Alaska
- new international fishing agreements with teeth
- shifting consumer demand to sustainable seafood, and
- building constituencies for ocean conservation and creating a new ocean ethic using sophisticated social marketing and community-building techniques.

Upbeat and inspiring, Heal the Ocean will appeal to professional environmental advocates, community leaders, opinion-shapers and policymakers, as well as any citizen aspiring to protect the ocean.

Customer Reviews:

Dive into this ocean of knowledge!.......2006-09-17

In "Heal the Ocean", Rod Fujita details the catastrophic state of our oceans as a result of global warming, overfishing, pollution, deep sea mining, military interests, and poor land use. More importantly, he describes the many ways that we can work together to protect and restore ocean ecosystems. As somebody who loves the ocean but has never before taken a marine biology course, I appreciate Fujita's accessible writing style. Thank you, Rod Fujita, for this educational and inspiring book.

New Book Rides a Wave of Hope.......2005-07-13

A must-read for anyone who visits a beach, lives near a coast or loves the ocean (and who doesn't?). A marine ecologist at Environmental Defense, Rod Fujita unravels the mystery of the sea, revealing its web of life and how we humans are woven into it -- and have shaped it, for better and worse. At the heart of this beautifully-written book lies Fujita's belief in the ocean's resiliency and unwavering faith that we can turn the tide against ocean decline. He shapes the complex science of ocean ecosystems into a tale as mesmerizing as the ocean itself.

Championing the Seas.......2005-06-16

Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving our Seas
by Rod Fujita
New Society Publishers
227 pages
www.newsociety.com

Championing the Seas
Dr. Rod Fujita does not write with the detached voice of a scientist, although he is one. He writes with the passion of a champion for the cause of sustainable development and he believes it is possible.
Some fisheries such as California's near shore waters collapsed through over fishing. The solution: California's Marine Life Management Act of 1999 that strives to protect whole ecosystems through marine reserves where no fishing is allowed. Fujita calls it "fish in the bank."
"Present economic activities should not compromise our own future need for resources or those of future generations," and according to Fujita, it is a view that is gaining acceptance all over the world. It is a view that makes sense.
Although the author shows numerous scenarios for environmental disasters, he is no prophet of doom. After showing how ecosystems can and do collapse, he shows solutions, and sometimes brilliant solutions that have worked as well as ideass that have not been tried, but should be. Solving problems with scientific knowledge and political know how makes Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving Our Seas an important book.
Some of the engineering solutions that Fujita shows are ingenious, yet there is not a single solution that fits all situations. Each problem, each place on earth and in its oceans has unique features that call for creative solutions. Each problem must balance human needs with the conservation of natural resources.
Rod Fujita's enthusiasm for his subject shines through. He provides a toolkit full of savvy solutions, some tried and successful and some waiting to be used to remedy modern day assaults upon the seas and their living ecosystems. His book draws upon a body of recent scientific discoveries and provides a wealth of fascinating details about the connections among rivers, oceans, land forms, mangroves, reefs and the life that is interdependent in ways that are understood, and ways we have yet to discover. This alone would make it an interesting book, but Dr. Fujita goes takes his subject further. He shows us a future full of possibilities for healing the oceans.
Dr. Fujita gleaned his knowledge from close observations under water and his scientific work at Woods Hole, (he received his PhD from Boston University's Marine Program), and his work as a Senior Scientist with Environmental Defense, an environmental activist group. He has served on many state and federal commissions and review panels. He looks at the big picture drawn from his experience of work on many environmental issues such as protecting marine ecosystems, global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain and new discoveries in the deep ocean abysses. Here is an authoritative author who opens our eyes to the beauty, intricate ecological relationships, and threats to our ecosystems as he raises our awareness of what is happening to the interconnected waters of this planet and the life in them. The book is interdisciplinary as books of this type must be.
He shows the importance of non-governmental organizations and what they can do to influence how state and federal funds are spent. By using examples, he shows the importance of local solutions. "People will protect what they love and can love what they understand...we too are part of the matrix of the coastal zone and the sea." He gives examples of commercial fishermen on the East Coast working hand in hand with the scientific community to find good solutions to conserve natural resources. Peoples such as native Hawaiians, who have lived on the land and gone to sea for generations, are wise in their knowledge of their particular environments. He shows where some government programs designed from afar have produced the opposite results than were intended.
He has documented losses of salmon on the West Coast through the damming of wild rivers. Pacific salmon are anadromous fish that migrate between oceans and freshwater rivers. These losses are disheartening but may be reversible. Scientists are using the concept of pysis, a Greek word that means self-healing. To reverse environmental damages, rivers can be returned to their natural states without levees and dams and with natural features such as wetlands and trees on their banks so that fish and wildlife can return to their intricate patterns of feeding and spawning in habitats that sustain.
Donning mask and flippers, Dr. Fujita has explored pristine reefs up close and observed how their ecosystems work as opposed to coral reefs damaged by global warming, pollution and destructive fishing practices. He advocates marine reserves as a way to study and preserve ocean species before it is too late.
The scope of the book covers various ocean zones from the near shore areas to the practically unknown abysses while revealing surprising new information insights and fresh ideas. Minerals in the deep ocean are there to be exploited by nations that need them; deep ocean mining needs to be regulated to protect deep water ecosystems that scientists are only beginning to study.
In the last chapter, "Creating A New Ocean Ethic," Dr. Fujita states that reasonable accommodations of competing interests-economic development and environmental protection can often be made. "True economic development is an increased quality of life, wherein people prosper not only in financial terms, but also in aesthetic and spiritual terms, sustained by natural beauty, wildlife and health ecosystems."
Hercules, hero of ancient Greek mythology, was given twelve seemingly impossible labors to accomplish and found ways to overcome enormous difficulties. There are lessons in this. Today, Dr. Fujita champions the Herculean tasks needed to heal the oceans of the world. With the precision of a careful scientist and the drive of a committed activist he has written a book that should be in every library and bookstore. Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving Our Seas makes complicated issues clear to scientists as well as the general public and writes with a fine style.
Review written by Barbara Spring, author of The Dynamic Great Lakes, a non-fiction book about the history of changes in North America's Great Lakes and The Wilderness Within, a book of nature poetry and essays from around the world.

UPBEAT, REALISTIC AND FULL OF NEW IDEAS.......2004-01-31

Dr. Fujita's highly readable book is full of positive examples of changes we can make to improve the environment. It is a realistic insight into the science of environmental change. The book takes the time to present the problems facing our oceans but also shares success stories for change. This is a wonderful book for a non-scientist, non activist but interested reader.

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Saving Manatees
Stephen R. Swinburne
Manufacturer: Boyds Mills Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1590783190

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Jacques-Yves Cousteau: an Extraordinary Man

Jacques Cousteau: Saving Our Seas
Lorraine Jean Hopping , and Bank Street College of Education
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0071357416

Book Description

From the Amazon River to the Antartic Ice Shelf, Jacques Costeau and his undersea explorations were made world-famous through award winning television and film documentaries, through which Cousteau made known both the beauty and the environmental plight of the oceans. While his nationality was French, Cousteau was truly a citizen of the world. A Renaissance man, his work as an environmentalist is hailed by marine biologists; and his inventions, the aqua-lung and the one-man submarine, ushered in a new era of underwater discovery. His research vessel Calypso was featured on and made famous by the much-beloved television series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, which begain in 1968 and aired on Tv for 8 years. Jacques Cousteau: Explorer of the Deep Seas, follows the thrilling story of this hero of the ocean from his childhood as a young inventor, to his days working as a spy for the French Army in World War II, to his development of the Cousteau Society, dedicated to the protection of ocean life and still going strong with 300,000 members worldwide. In 1985, Cousteau was awarded the Medal of Freedom from President Reagan and, until his death in 1997--at the age of 87!--Cousteau never stopped championing the deep blue seas.

Customer Reviews:

Jacques-Yves Cousteau: an Extraordinary Man.......2001-03-19

I think Jacques Cousteau was a wonderful man. He helped us out more than we know. This book was vey informative and interesting. I aplaude the author for having the will to write about an accomplished individual like Jacques Cousteau and doing an excellent job at it. Thank you Jacques Cousteau for doing so very much for our country and others. You have my sincerest graditude. I enjoyed learning about this topic and I liked the organization of interesting facts that I found in this particular book. I am a 13 year old Freshman attending Harvard, and I was very inmpressed with this book.

Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas

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America's Great Ocean Adventure
Core Information is Brilliant, Presentation is Marginal
Waxing poetic on oil rigs
THIS BOOK IS GREAT!!!!

Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas
David Helvarg
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805071350

Book Description

A fascinating account of Americas oceans and ocean politics, Blue Frontier explores the impact of history, commerce, and policy on marine lifeand by extension all life on earth. From the legacy of navy-funded research and development since World War II to the current newsworthy topics such as beach closures, collapsing fish stocks, killer algae, hurricanes, and oil spills, Blue Frontier takes readers on an adventure-filled tour of Americas last great wilderness range. Despite todays wide-open development along our coasts and in offshore waters, Blue Frontier argues that sensible policies can still halt the onslaught of industrial destruction. An impassioned call for a new approach to ocean stewardship, Blue Frontier is essential reading for anyone interested in saving our maritime culture and heritage.

Customer Reviews:

America's Great Ocean Adventure.......2001-12-14

David Helvarg takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of America's last great frontier - Our ocean wilderness. In lively, informative and often amusing writing he introduces us to the people and the critters who populate wet America, our 200 mile wide Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which,he also points out, is larger than the continental United States and far more challenging than the Wild West ever was.
From aircraft carriers, to underwater science labs, offshore oil rigs to Antarctic waters, he shows us both the tremendous environmental dangers facing our living seas as well as the watermen and women who are working to right things. If you're going to read one book about the seas, or encourage students and young people to learn more about our maritime heritage and future, this is the book to pick up and pass along.

Core Information is Brilliant, Presentation is Marginal.......2001-06-02

This is the worst of several environmental books I have reviewed, largely because its style is too chatty, the type and presentation formats chosen by the editor are terrible and make it difficult to read and enjoy, and there is isn't a single map or chart or table or figure in the entire book. Bearing in mind that this book made the cut from hundreds that I could have bought and read, and it made the second more rigorous cut to be reviewed, these comments should be taken as they are intended: this is a super book that got screwed up by the publisher and a lack of decent editorial guidance. It should be fixed in the second edition, and I hope it gets to a second edition. Given the author's clearly superior access to and understanding of the individual personalities and organizational players across America, I am really stunned and disappointed that there is not an appendix to the book listing all of these, with contact information and URLs.

There is so much solid, worthwhile information in this book, including valuable insights in why Western political interests are undermining proper representation of our national oceans, coasts, and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Congress, that I would urge those interested in the oceans (hugely more important to our future than the Amazon or globla forestry, just to make the point), to buy this book, suffer its limitations, and ultimately benefit from the wisdom and experience of the author, for whom my respect is unqualified and whole-hearted. In passing, it would probably be helpful if the first thing we all demanded was that EEZ stand for Exclusive Environmental Zone, rather than treating the oceans as a for-profit target area.

There is one other information-related observation I would make that emerged from reading this book: both the United Nations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are clearly doing heroic and deeply important work vital to the future of the oceans--and they are doing a terrible job of communicating the basic information about the oceans and their work to the larger world of voters and concerned citizens. What really came home to me as I reflected on what to emphasize in this review is that there is a very wide, almost impenetratable, barrier between what the UN and NOAA know, and what is being communicated to the citizens who have the right to know (they paid for that information with their tax dollars) and the need to know and the desire to know. From this I would say that the next big step for those who would seek to save the oceans, is to demand that all UN and US Government information paid for by the taxpayer be put online henceforth, available at no further cost to the public. It is this information, the bullets and beans of the information war between corporate and citizen interests, that will decide the future of the oceans.

Waxing poetic on oil rigs.......2001-05-30

Helvarg offers front-line account of fight to save the Blue Frontier

By David Liscio

If it's possible to wax poetically about the way offshore oil rigs attract fish, while still remaining a staunch environmentalist, then author David Helvarg has succeeded.

Aboard a helicopter, he writes, "We circle around the flat-topped platform called Pompano. Owned by BP-Amoco, it is the second tallest bottom-fixed structure in the world, drilling into the ocean floor 1,310 feet below the surface. About 700 feet wide at its base, it is taller than the Empire State Building."

Another platform, Amberjack, is described as "the ultimate Tinkertoy. An active drilling rig, it towers 272 feet from the waterline to the top of its bottle-shaped derrick. Its density of utilized space is a structural salute to human ingenuity."

Author of "The War Against the Greens," Helvarg's latest book, "Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas," (New York: W.H. Freeman & Co., 2001), delivers in-depth reporting on subjects such as ocean mining, reef management, oil exploration, over-fishing, and government ineptitude when it comes to formulating sound environmental policy. The author clearly has divided his time between research libraries and the field. He has visited the underwater living quarters of scientists off the coast of Key West, climbed the towering oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and gone diving off Monterey where Californians keep sharp lookout for white sharks, all with the intention to see up-close what's going on.

At the start of the chapter on offshore petroleum drilling, Helvarg quotes an oil company spokesman recalling the Huntington Beach oil spill of 1990. The spokesman says, "Then this Hollywood star pulls up in his limo, must have been half a block long, wanting to know what we've done to his beach. And I'm thinking, hey that limo of yours doesn't run on sunbeams you know."

Helvarg has been beneath the surface of the sea to examine precisely the rampant devastation of fragile ecosystems, the destruction of coral reefs by disease, human waste, phosphate blanketing, and sheer overuse, particularly dive boats that anchor rather than use fixed moorings.

Although the Alaskan coast dominates the news in 2001 whenever discussion turns to offshore drilling, Helvarg noted, "There are some 4,000 platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico today. Offshore drilling accounts for 20 percent of U.S. oil production and 27 percent of its natural gas. Despite heated debate over drilling off California, Florida, Alaska, and North Carolina, 93 percent of all present offshore production takes place in the gulf." He found that many of those expensive rigs are run by disciplined crews who produce lucrative returns for investors.

Helvarg has meticulously and colorfully described how the oil industry was created in North America, and included a brief review of the movie industry and the media impact it produced. For example, he cited the 1953 film "Thunder Bay" starring Jimmy Stewart as an oil geologist confronting suspicious shrimp fishermen in Louisiana's bayou. As Helvarg put it, the film reflects the dominant view of the time when progress and industry were thought to be synonymous, while today, an oil gusher would be viewed as an ecological disaster.

Key Largo, off Southern Florida, epitomizes another dilemma. In Helvarg's words, "Branching corals that once grew here remain only as skeletal sticks in bleached rubble fields. Many of the abundant rock corals are being eaten away by diseases that have spread in an epidemic wave throughout the Florida Keys. The names of the diseases tell the story: black band, white band, white plague, and aspergillus, a fungus normally found in terrestrial soil that can shred fan corals like moths shred Irish lace."

Through interviews and an exhaustive search for truth, Helvarg has broken new ground. He has managed to explain in a clear and straightforward writing style such issues as beach closings, oil spills, collapsing fish stocks, killer algae, pollution, reckless development, and the failure of the U.S. government to protect what may be its final frontier - the Blue Frontier.

Most importantly, he has found reason to remain optimistic. Consider his closing remarks: "Our oceans remain full of strange wonders and grand experiences that will thrill generations yet unborn. Despite all the problems and challenges we face fighting for America's living seas, that is still enough to give one hope. After all, it is not every great nation, forged by its earliest frontier experiences, that gets a second chance."

(David Liscio is the environmental reporter for The Daily Item newspaper in Lynn, MA, an ecology professor at Endicott College in Beverly, MA, and the Massachusetts correspondent to the Society of Environmental Journalists.

THIS BOOK IS GREAT!!!!.......2001-05-09

It's not just a book -- it's an adventure!

Book Description

This book tells you where beach sand comes from, how waves are formed and how they break and move sand down the coast, how "works of man" have blocked this movement and caused beach erosion, and what can be done to save the beaches for future generations of Americans. A three-part prescription for healthy beaches is proposed: "backing off", "bypassing sand", and "beach nourishment". So if you love waves and beaches, and care about the future of your favorite beach spot, then read this book while you enjoy the beach.

Customer Reviews:

Great read for understanding beach processes.......2007-05-15

If you want to help save America's beaches, you must read this book!

Great beach book!.......2004-04-14

I ordered a copy of this book iniitially because I was interested in buying beach property along the Alabama coast and I knew the author had done some extensive work in studying the beach erosion problems down there. I was expecting a somewhat technical manual that would be hard to understand. I was delighted with the easy to read, very interesting way in which Dr. Douglass highlights the causes and solutions to beach erosion. Honestly, I would pick this book up if you are in the slightest bit interested in learning more about America's beaches. Great pictures too. I read it in one sitting. My highest recommendation!

Choosing the Right Cruise for You: Easy-To-Read, Time and Money-Saving Tips, First-Time and Repeat Cruisers

Average customer rating:

Easy to read and comprehensive. Good Tips.

Choosing the Right Cruise for You: Easy-To-Read, Time and Money-Saving Tips, First-Time and Repeat Cruisers
John Wm Macchi , and Art Kane
Manufacturer: Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cruises | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

Easy to read and comprehensive. Good Tips........2002-05-10

I found this book quick and easy to read with lots of sensible tips for use on board the cruise ship. Macchi knows his way around the ship and explores lots of ways for the new cruiser to have fun and save money. A good book to have with you on a cruise. It was given to me by a close friend and it was the best thing I could have brought on my most recent voyage.

Naval battles of the world: Great and decisive contests on the sea, causes and results of ocean victories and defeats, marine warfare and armament in all ... and life saving service / by Edward Shippen

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Naval battles of the world: Great and decisive contests on the sea, causes and results of ocean victories and defeats, marine warfare and armament in all ... and life saving service / by Edward Shippen
Edward Shippen
Manufacturer: Franklin Book Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008BVVK4

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Oceans (Saving Our World)
Jane Parker
Manufacturer: Copper Beech
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Petroleum Refining Industry: Energy Saving and Environmental Control (Ocean Technology Review)

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Petroleum Refining Industry: Energy Saving and Environmental Control (Ocean Technology Review)
Marshall Sittig
Manufacturer: Noyes Data Corporation/Noyes Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Saving Oceans and Wetlands (Precious Earth)

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Saving Oceans and Wetlands (Precious Earth)
Jen Green
Manufacturer: Chrysalis Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1593891393

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