Book Summary and Reviews of The Ocean of Life by Callum Roberts

The Ocean of Life by Callum Roberts

The Ocean of Life

The Fate of Man and the Sea

by Callum Roberts

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  • Published:
  • May 2012, 416 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts - one of the world's foremost conservation biologists - leads readers on a fascinating tour of mankind's relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life.

We have always been fish eaters, from the dawn of civilization, but in the last twenty years we have transformed the oceans beyond recognition. Putting our exploitation of the seas into historical context, Roberts offers a devastating account of the impact of modern fishing techniques, pollution, and climate change, and reveals what it would take to steer the right course while there is still time. Like Four Fish and The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Ocean of Life takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Roberts's meditation will have readers gasping aloud with wonder, even as the sobering truth of humans' profound interdependence with the sea provokes concern." - Publishers Weekly

"A timely wake-up call." - Kirkus Reviews

"A Silent Spring for oceans, written by 'the Rachel Carson of the fish world.'"- The New York Times

This information about The Ocean of Life was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Callum Roberts

Callum Roberts is the author of The Unnatural History of the Sea, a Washington Post Book of the Year and winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Professor of marine conservation at the University of York. He has appeared in several documentaries, including "America Before Columbus" and "The End of the Line," and is a board member of Seaweb, a U.S.-based environmental group. He lives in England.

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