Product Description
A record-breaking deep sea diver who dives in the sophisticated submersibles her company builds, reveals the current, urgent state of the endangered seas and offers a blueprint for change to save the world's most crucial natural resource.

Amazon.com Review
What have we learned since 1951, when Rachel Carson's charming The Sea Around Us was published, winning so many hearts and the National Book Award? The sea below us, as pioneering marine biologist Sylvia Earle and others have demonstrated, churns with far more life than Carson ever dreamed. Sea Change is an enthusiastic celebration of that diversity and abundance. It's also a profoundly sobering account of the shortsighted human assault on ocean life. The "silent tide," as one reviewer wrote, may lie just offshore. Only a sea change in human habits and economies will save the oceans.

Like Carson, Earle carved a place for herself in the public imagination despite resistance from those in her male-dominated field. Her tales of underwater adventure--including many record-breaking dives among the 6,000 hours she has spent underwater--are punctuated by stories about her increasing prominence as an advocate for the oceans. She's seen it all, it seems: a year diving with whales in Hawaii, visits to Prince William Sound and the Persian Gulf in the aftermath of colossal oil spills, etc. Her breezy prose won't win her the National Book Award, but few others wear Rachel Carson's mantle as gracefully. That is reason enough to read Sea Change. --Pete Holloran

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 9 reviews)

The Vanishing Oceans

I grew up in the desert around Yuma, Arizona, but, while still a great fan of deserts, I always wished for more contact with the sea. Unfortunately my ideal oceanic habitat is under major attack around the world. During my early youth I often read that the sea contained vast renewable resources which, unlike oil, gas, coal and metals, were inexhaustible. These books were wrong about this, as the collapse of the Atlantic fisheries over the last decade have shown, not to mention the ongoing collapse of the Pacific coast salmon fisheries, especially in California.

Sylvia Earle, who was appointed as Chief Scientist at NOAA by the George H. W. Bush administration in 1990 and was retained by the Clinton administration until 1992, is an expert on the sea and its biota. She also pioneered in some major advances of deep sea exploration, including actually living in an underwater laboratory and taking part in record- breaking untethered deep sea diving. In "Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans" she puts her finger exactly on the problems faced by oceanic life-a classic "tragedy of the commons".

Earle describes the exploration and exploitation of the oceans from a personal perspective, which I think is a plus. It makes the book more readable and interesting. She also describes the problems associated with trying to educate the public and unfortunately the government in the intricate problems associated with the oceans. I only wish that humans had followed her advice on saving the oceans, given in 1995, but not yet implemented, despite the growing understanding that time is running out.

I picked up Dr. Earle's book at the University of Washington book store while on vacation in Seattle and Vancouver. Her points were well illustrated by the problems surrounding the salmon fisheries in Washington and the possible fate of the local pods of orcas ("killer whales") off Vancouver that depend on them for food. I thought of these issues as I watched the orcas break the surface around me, occasionally also leaping or spy hopping. It will be a sad day if and when these magnificent beasts no longer prowl the San Juan Islands.

I hope many people read "Sea Change", for we, as a species, require a real change of heart if we are to survive the next century. So far I've not seen the general will to face the coming storm and try to make it less destructive. Read this book! It may just make you understand the seriousness of the situation in which we now find ourselves.
August 28, 2008

The history and science of oceanography

Much of this book is written in the first person, which in places makes it very appealing, but in other places is distracting. My other gripe is that she jumps around a bit in her life time - so one chapter she talks about being the only woman on an expedition, and then she is the 1990's leader of NOAA and then we are back to her childhood haunts and back again.

That being said, it is a good read, full of facts and history. She worked in the sciences back when women were uncommon in the field. Back when there was no scuba gear and Jacques Cousteau was in to spear fishing, not conservation. Interesting stories, indeed! So, if you want an account of oceanography, past and present, its extreme limits and cool equipment from a personal point of view, pick this one up.
January 24, 2003

A message of The Oceans

This book was full of information and facts that I didnt know and found interesting as well as a list of Marine Sanctuaries etc. Sylvia Earle has paved the way for many I really found some of her passages to be inspiring. I will now think everytime I eat shrimp! I would suggest this book to anyone interested in Marine Biology or the Ocean and its conservation.
December 10, 2002

Excellent story about the Oceans and the environment

Sylvia really opened my eyes to the fragile nature of our environment and to the beauty and vastness of the oceans. I highly recommend this book for anyone with the slightest interest in our environment and nature. This book will make you interested in learning and doing more for the environment.
February 07, 2001

Learn from one of the best

Sea Change is a marine science book written by a master marine scientists. There are very few people around these days who seem to be in full command (or nearly so) of their subject. Sylvia Earle appears to be one of these rare specimens. I think that young scientists also can learn quite a bit through the experiences and personal insights of great scholars like Dr. Earle, insights that usually are not shared with all students, insights, that are normally learned by often painfull experience. Sea Change shows us the development of a science, of an important part of our world, our society and it shows us the personal development of a fascinating woman. If you want to know scientific details about marine science, go and buy a textbook. If you want to know how one of the greatest marine scientists thinks, buy Sea Change.
May 26, 1999

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