Blue Frontier : Saving America's Living Seas - Hardcover

Helvarg, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0716737159 ISBN 13: 9780716737155

Publisher: W. H. Freeman, 2001

Synopsis

Oceans cover over 71% of the earth’s surface, absorb far greater amounts of carbon dioxide than rain forests, and exert a powerful control over climate, clouds, and weather. Yet our living oceans are imperiled as never before, plagued by overfishing, reckless development, and pollution. Will future generations be able to enjoy the riches of our nation’s greatest environmental treasure?

A fascinating account of America’s oceans and ocean politics, Blue Frontier explores the impact of history, commerce and policy on marine life - and by extension all life on earth. From the legacy of Navy-funded ocean research and development since World War II to the latest controversies surrounding beach closures, collapsing fish stocks, killer algae, hurricanes, and oil spills, Blue Frontier takes readers on an adventure-filled tour of America’s last great wilderness range.

Helvarg argues that sensible policies can still halt the onslaught of industrial destruction, despite today’s wide-open development along our coasts and in our offshore waters. Profiling the growing number of coastal citizen-activists, local
governments, and waterfront communities that are working to protect and restore healthy seas for all of us, he shows how informed individuals can make a difference.

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.

About this title

About the Author:

David Helvarg is a long-time ocean enthusiast whose reporting on the oceans goes back to the 1970s when he wrote an award-winning series of articles on the rush to develop deep sea mining. Since then he has produced dozens of articles and television documentary reports on a range of ocean topics, from off-shore drilling to Navy SEALs to high seas drift nets, as well as profiles of important figures in ocean exploration, which have appeared in “Smithsonian”, “Audubon”, “Men’s Journal”, “Dive Travel”, “The San Francisco Examiner”, “San Diego Union”, and on “The McNeil-Leherer News Hour”, PBS’s “Green Means”, Geraldo Rivera’s “Now It Can Be Told”, The Discovery Channel and A&E. A scuba diver and bodysurfer, Helvarg has written about his experiences diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, riding a whale shark, and swimming with wild dolphins. He has shot and produced videos from an underwater habitat in the Florida Keys, aboard various ships of war, and on an offshore oil platform near Santa Barbara. In pursuit of stories he has also tagged blue sharks, caught freshwater sawfish, visited nuclear protesters on an island off the coast of Korea, bodysurfed in war-torn El Salvador, and been shipwrecked in Mexico. A contributing editor on NPR’s “Marketplace”, Helvarg delivers a regular radio column on ocean economics.

Review:

"Pick up Blue Frontier and you won't be able to put it down."
—Paul R. Ehrlich, author of Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect

"An illuminating, insightful and sobering look at our imperiled oceans—and the challenges we must overcome if we are to save our ‘blue frontier.’"
—Ted Danson, actor, Founding President, American Oceans Campaign

"Helvarg's on-site and at-sea narrative puts you where the action is."
—Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean

"I thought I knew the ocean, until I read David Helvarg’s book. Blue Frontier is a fascinating read."
—Alexandra Paul, actress, Baywatch

"A must-read for anyone seeking to put the current debate in context."
—Jim Toomey, syndicated cartoonist, Sherman’s Lagoon

"This insightful new book underscores the full measure of the challenge before us: If we hope to explore the blue frontier, we must travel cautiously, repairing the damage we have done, understanding before we exploit, and always preserving the natural systems that have created it."
—Senator John F. Kerry

About this edition

• Publisher: W. H. Freeman
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0716737159
• ISBN 13: 9780716737155
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320