by Brooke Bessesen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 2018
A well-told and moving tale of environmentalism and conservation.
With strong feelings and a world of facts, a naturalist and wildlife researcher tells of the fight to save one critically endangered marine mammal.
The vaquita (“little cow” in Spanish), or Phocoena sinus, is the smallest of all the porpoises, and it is found only in a small region in the northern part of the Sea of Cortez, between Baja California and the Mexican state of Sonora. Once abundant, vaquitas are now rarely seen, leading some to claim that the species may already be extinct. Bessesen (Arizona Highways Wildlife Guide: 125 of Arizona’s Native Species, 2016, etc.) explores the factors behind the vanishing of vaquitas: One of the primary problems are the gill nets that fishermen use to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder brings thousands of dollars in China for its supposed therapeutic properties. Vaquitas scooped up in the gill nets die. The author alleges that Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, could have acted to make gill nets illegal but did only enough to appear preservation-minded. “With China hemorrhaging money and with the Mexican cartels in the driver’s seat,” she writes, “I just can’t imagine that there is a chance for sustainability. Like elephant tusks, the fewer that remain, the greater the value.” Nevertheless, a lot of people are trying. Besides the villains—cartels, poachers, and the distributors and consumers of totoaba swim bladders—Bessesen’s account is filled with dozens of scientists, conservationists, concerned fishermen, and supporters fighting to save a disappearing species. Especially gripping are the author’s tales of capturing vaquitas and attempting to raise them in protective custody. Unfortunately, all attempts failed. One of the take-home messages here is that conservation is complicated, requiring an understanding of history, related species, and the intricacies of ecosystems. Another is that there are important lessons to be learned from the vaquita story, and we all must do better to protect the biodiversity of our planet.
A well-told and moving tale of environmentalism and conservation.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61091-931-9
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
by Patrik Svensson translated by Agnes Broomé ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2020
Unsentimental nature writing that sheds as much light on humans as on eels.
An account of the mysterious life of eels that also serves as a meditation on consciousness, faith, time, light and darkness, and life and death.
In addition to an intriguing natural history, Swedish journalist Svensson includes a highly personal account of his relationship with his father. The author alternates eel-focused chapters with those about his father, a man obsessed with fishing for this elusive creature. “I can’t recall us ever talking about anything other than eels and how to best catch them, down there by the stream,” he writes. “I can’t remember us speaking at all….Because we were in…a place whose nature was best enjoyed in silence.” Throughout, Svensson, whose beat is not biology but art and culture, fills his account with people: Aristotle, who thought eels emerged live from mud, “like a slithering, enigmatic miracle”; Freud, who as a teenage biologist spent months in Trieste, Italy, peering through a microscope searching vainly for eel testes; Johannes Schmidt, who for two decades tracked thousands of eels, looking for their breeding grounds. After recounting the details of the eel life cycle, the author turns to the eel in literature—e.g., in the Bible, Rachel Carson’s Under the Sea Wind, and Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum—and history. He notes that the Puritans would likely not have survived without eels, and he explores Sweden’s “eel coast” (what it once was and how it has changed), how eel fishing became embroiled in the Northern Irish conflict, and the importance of eel fishing to the Basque separatist movement. The apparent return to life of a dead eel leads Svensson to a consideration of faith and the inherent message of miracles. He warns that if we are to save this fascinating creature from extinction, we must continue to study it. His book is a highly readable place to begin learning.
Unsentimental nature writing that sheds as much light on humans as on eels.Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296881-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.