Reef Life
An Underwater Memoir
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- USD 7.99
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- USD 7.99
Descripción editorial
'A ravishing, alarming account of these underwater palaces of wonder, and the existential threat they face from humanity and our warming climate ... Nature's throne rooms are thrown open by Roberts's prose' - The Spectator
'A vibrant memoir ... a fine introduction to the ecology of reefs and the existential threats they now face' - The Guardian
Reef Life is a marine science memoir - the story of how Britain's pre-eminent marine conservation scientist, fell in love with coral reefs. Callum Roberts begins as a young university student who had never been abroad, spending a summer helping to map the unknown reefs of Saudi Arabia. From the moment he first cleared his goggles, he's never looked back, moving on to survey Sharm al-Sheikh, and from there diving and researching all over the world, including the Australia's imperilled Great Barrier Reef and the more resilient reefs of the Caribbean, in a thirty-year career. His stories are astonishing, lyrical and laced with a wonderful wry humour - and they allow us privileged access to, and understanding of, the science of our oceans and reefs. Reading this book will also commit readers to support of Callum's goal to get marine reserve status for ten percent of the world's ocean.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Marine scientist Roberts (The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea) offers a vital account of his dives through the world's coral reefs. Roberts takes readers through almost four decades of his undersea explorations, beginning in 1982, when, as an undergraduate, he first dove amid reefs in the Red Sea. Throughout, Roberts shows a gift for vivid descriptions of the creatures he encounters ("the surgeonfish were pastel blue ovals with two dusky facial bars and puckered lips with which they kissed weed from the rocks"). In addition to showcasing memorable specimens of marine life, Roberts enables his audience to marvel at the miracle of natural engineering which coral reefs represent, as "they are visible from space, but to see clearly the animals that build them you need a magnifying glass." He ends in 2019, covering the devastation to major formations such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and hopefully raising the possibility that some reefs can adapt to global warming. Natural history buffs and conservationists will cherish this vivid aquatic odyssey.
