Ocean Endangered

Two weeks ago I had the honour of interviewing Russell Arnott. You'll read about that (very inspiring) interview later on. Today I want to focus on the book he wrote with Celine Van Weelden, called Ocean Endangered. In my humble opinion: a book people everywhere should have on their coffee tables in order to spark conversation about our oceans' wonders while entertaining their friends and family.

No. I'm doing it wrong. I shouldn't be talking about oceans in plural. It's basic ocean literacy 1.0: our Earth has one big ocean. This may sound like a trivial detail, but it's not. As a child we're brought up with the idea there are five big oceans in the world, and all kinds of different seas. Given their seperate names, it's quite normal to think of them as seperate entities. They're not. They're connected.

Their connectedness is maybe best shown by an example that I would have preferred not being able to give: that of the plastic ducklings of the Ever Laurel. In 1992 the Ever Laurel was on its way to Washington from Hong Kong and, during a storm, lost twelve huge containers. One of these was filled with over 28,000 bath toys (rubber ducks, turtles, beavers and frogs) that were then released in the ocean. In the following decades, these toys did not only reach beaches surrounding the Pacific, they even washed ashore in Ireland and Scotland, after crossing the Arctic Ocean. This way, the Friendly Floatees - or so the toys were called - gave rise to thorough research on global ocean currents and a better understanding of what happens with polluted water masses or how polar bears end up with synthetic chemicals used as fire retardants in their fat.

Anyway, back to Ocean Endangered. Russell and Celine (I want to say Arnott and Van Weelden, but I know Russell prefers it otherwise) select five important ocean biomes in their book: Polar regions, coastlines, coral reefs, open ocean and deep ocean. Per biome they zoom in on specific issues threatening that biome. For example: climate change is putting a huge pressure on the polar regions while coastlines are more threatened by pollution, tourism or excess nutrients from agriculture. 

Instead of using a pessimistic "all is doomed" perspective, Russell and Celine applied a cleaver approach writing this book: per biome they sandwiched the threats between fun facts and hopeful future perspectives. Doing this, they succeed in informing people of the current biodiversity crisis, while still offering hope for the future. Getting people engaged and participating often works best by empowering messages. True, the subtle presence of humour throughout the book, e.g. by comparing anglerfish mating to online dating, helps too. 

In short, Ocean Endangered is a most necessary book, that clearly explains what's at stake, while at the same time beautifully describing the most mesmerising creatures in our ocean. A must-read for all.