An inspired and impassioned story of adventure that explores the richness of marine life and charts a path of resilience and hope.
Everyone alive today is witnessing a mass extinction event caused by the more than eight billion humans who share this planet. At times, it seems there is little hope. Climate change, resource exploitation, agrochemicals, overfishing, plastics, dead zones in our oceans, drought and desertification, conversion of habitat to housing, farming, and industrial infrastructure—the list of impacts and insults goes on and on. We are, it seems, on an unalterable path that will continue to decimate biodiversity.
A feeling of hopeless, while not unwarranted, is part of the problem. Without hope, without some belief in the possibility of positive outcomes, the fight for nature is over. Why even try if the battle is already lost?
While staring the problems squarely in the face, A Sea Full of Turtles offers hope for those who care about our living world. Delivered as a travel narrative set in Mexico’s Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), at one level the book focuses on dramatically underfunded but highly successful efforts to protect sea turtles. But the book goes beyond Mexico and beyond sea turtles to look at how some humans have changed their relationship with nature—and how that change can one day end the extinction crisis.
Enchanting, galvanizing, and brimming with joy and wonder, A Sea Full of Turtles will inspire immediate action to face the great challenges that lie ahead. Pessimism is the lazy way out. Optimism, it turns out, is both a reasonable and an essential attitude for us all as we fight for the beautiful diversity of life on our Earth.
"Aquatic ecologist Streever is an optimist, or in his words, he wants to live with hope. As Streever writes of evolution and turtle biology within a travel narrative, he speaks of how humans have accelerated the rate of climate change and global extinction, but also of how individuals are striving to change humanity's relationship with the planet and its animals."
"In this stimulating report, Streever recounts traveling around Mexico’s Gulf of California to interview the fishers, nonprofit directors, scientists, and volunteers who are working to protect endangered sea turtles. The profiles of individuals leading conservation efforts offer reason for hope even as they make clear the direness of the sea turtle’s situation. Animal lovers will be galvanized."
“In this lovingly-crafted book, Bill Streever both builds a case for optimism for the future and takes us on a grand adventure in the boat wake of Steinbeck and Ricketts. As much about the animals as our own decisions, Sea Full of Turtles is a rare kind of honest reflection that shows us what survival can look like when we start to pay attention.”
“An aquatic ecologist recounts his search for reasons for optimism in the face of looming extinction crises. Streever zeroes in on the fate of sea turtles, but his larger concern is existential. If we conceive of the history of life on Earth as a 24-hour day, he writes, humans’ attention to the conservation of our fellow species has only arisen 'a mere few seconds before midnight.' Sea turtles and other 'charismatic endangered species' can serve to 'draw our attention, help us change our ways.' A hopeful consideration of the beauty and fate of wild sea turtles—and the natural world as a whole.”
