Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean

by Osha Gray Davidson

Book Overview

Sea turtles have existed since the time of the dinosaurs. But now, suddenly, the turtles are dying, ravaged by a mysterious plague that some biologists consider the most serious epidemic now raging in the natural world. Perhaps most important, sea turtles aren't the only marine creatures falling prey to deadly epidemics. Over the last few decades diseases have been burning through nearshore waters around the world with unprecedented lethality.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586481991
• ISBN13: 9781586481995
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

An Honest, Inside Account about the Fate of the Sea Turtle

I knew that sea turtles were endangered or threatened but never really investigated the reasons why. I found this book while perusing the book store and it caught my attention so I bought it and read it. The book is well written and speaks to a non-biologist audience. It simply tells of the authors investigations into the reasons that they think the sea turtles are dying off at an alarming rate. It left me with my mouth gaping open and wondering why more people are not educated about the plight of this species. While reading, the author makes you feel a part of their experiences, as if you were scuba diving with these creatures. If the data from this book is any indication of the plight of the Earth's oceans, it is a very scary thought of what may be to come. I recommend this book for ANYONE who is inquisitive about the hype surrounding "our dying oceans". It gives a detailed account of the afflictions affecting sea turtles and what we are trying to do to save them. The problem appears to go way beyond this mysterious virus. The book made me cry and get angry at the same time. We need to find out what is happening and target the source.In the preface of the paperback edition, the author makes this statement: "If I could coin a blessing for a new world, it would be this: May your children swim in an ocean full of turtles." Amen to that Osha Gray Davidson.

Mysterious Waters....

Unequivocally, I loved this book! Parts biological mystery, turtle evolution, naturalist history and love story to the sea, it's wrapped up in very engaging prose. It made me fall in love with the creatures!! And apparently I'm not the only one...In a book I read last year, "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made," the authors' dedicated the book to a green sea turtle!! It read:"To the green sea turtle who twenty-five years ago bumped the bottom of a boat in Key West, Florida, scaring a little girl. Those tears and this book are for you and your descendants."Here's hoping that turtle's descendants will STILL be around in another 25 years! But the more people who read this book, the more attention these endangered animals will deservedly get.

Compelling Read About Fate of Sea Turtles and the Oceans

Fire In the Turtle House is a thorough, investigative account of many dedicated marine biologist, scientists, and turtle lovers trying to figure out how and why green sea turtles have become afflicted with fibropamillomatosis. The virus is killing off the specie in untold numbers and will lead to their extinction. By the reading the book not only did I learn about sea turtles, and how they live and breed, but I got an enormous education in marine biology and how the ocean is a precious habitat for these creatures. The author helped me understand by giving specific examples as to how man is contributing to the ocean's decline and thus sea life's decline. This isn't a diatribe on man but a well thought out provocative look at a very important topic told so that everyone can understand. There is a quote in the book by Arthur C. Clarke that says that our planet should not of been called Earth but perhaps "Oceana." Very true when most of the planet is made up of water, as are we. My eyes have been open to the truth of this statement after reading Fire in the Turtle House.

Bad News, And Not Just For Turtles

You didn't need to be told that humans are ruining natural environments all over the place. In the competition for survival, we are winning, beating out competitors, causing havoc, and claiming victory, however short term it may be. It is only particular aspects of the problem that are news, and we do need to be told of them for the purpose, if nothing more, of keeping our eyes open to the onslaught. Here is an aspect that you may not know about: green sea turtles are being killed off by a mysterious illness. A sincere and thoughtful book will tell you of the problem, if you can stand to hear about it: _Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean_ (PublicAffairs) by Osha Gray Davidson. Davidson is a fine storyteller, and has pulled the history of sea turtles together with documentation about their current fate, as well as giving vivid portraits of the idiosyncratic turtle fans who are trying to do something about the turtles' problem. The particular problem for them is serious, and as Davidson's subtitle tells, it reflects a general and larger disaster.The green sea turtle has survived for over a hundred million years, and it simply may not be around much longer. It has been overhunted, but as Davidson makes clear, overhunting is so cause-and-effect obvious that it is often blamed as the reason extinctions happen. However, a hundred years ago we were learning that the indirect methods of ignorance and indifference were far more efficient vectors of biological collapse by means of habitat destruction. We are also turning coastal waters into a breeding ground for a revolting disease called fibropapillomatosis, or FP for short. Tumors sprout on the flippers restricting motion, and around the eyes causing blindness, and within the guts causing eventual death. They are warty or smooth, and leeches live in them for the blood supply, and blood flukes lay eggs in them. In 1986 researchers were shocked that there were outbreaks of the disease in both Florida and Hawaii. The exact mechanism of the disease is in doubt, but what is not in doubt is that turtles with this disgusting and sad disease come from the areas which are most highly polluted, by fertilizers and sewage, or have sea beds gouged by trawling. Turtles from the few remaining pristine areas are so far unaffected, but no ocean creature will be unaffected by ocean temperature change, which is another way the sea becomes friendly to pathogens.Davidson's work is full of facts and scientific information, and skillful portraits of people involved in trying to do something about this horrendous illness. If there is any defect in his book, it is that it spends its bulk explaining the problem carefully, and leaves only a few paragraphs for instruction on what we can do, and such instruction is general: "We could stop treating the ocean as if it were the world's largest garbage dump and start treating it like the sacred source of all life that it is... We coul

A Must Read

A well writen, easy to read, shocking and informative review of the epidemic plaguing the sea turtles of the world. A must read for anyone interested in sea turtles and/or the health of the world's oceans in general. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down.