Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas

by David Helvarg

Book Overview

Oceans cover over 71% of the earth's surface, absorb far greater amounts of carbon dioxide than rain forests, and exert a powerful control over climate, clouds, and weather. Yet our living oceans are... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0716737159
• ISBN13: 9780716737155
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

America's Great Ocean Adventure

David Helvarg takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of America's last great frontier - Our ocean wilderness. In lively, informative and often amusing writing he introduces us to the people and the critters who populate wet America, our 200 mile wide Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which,he also points out, is larger than the continental United States and far more challenging than the Wild West ever was. From aircraft carriers, to underwater science labs, offshore oil rigs to Antarctic waters, he shows us both the tremendous environmental dangers facing our living seas as well as the watermen and women who are working to right things. If you're going to read one book about the seas, or encourage students and young people to learn more about our maritime heritage and future, this is the book to pick up and pass along.

Waxing poetic on oil rigs

Helvarg offers front-line account of fight to save the Blue FrontierBy David LiscioIf it's possible to wax poetically about the way offshore oil rigs attract fish, while still remaining a staunch environmentalist, then author David Helvarg has succeeded. Aboard a helicopter, he writes, "We circle around the flat-topped platform called Pompano. Owned by BP-Amoco, it is the second tallest bottom-fixed structure in the world, drilling into the ocean floor 1,310 feet below the surface. About 700 feet wide at its base, it is taller than the Empire State Building."Another platform, Amberjack, is described as "the ultimate Tinkertoy. An active drilling rig, it towers 272 feet from the waterline to the top of its bottle-shaped derrick. Its density of utilized space is a structural salute to human ingenuity."Author of "The War Against the Greens," Helvarg's latest book, "Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas," (New York: W.H. Freeman & Co., 2001), delivers in-depth reporting on subjects such as ocean mining, reef management, oil exploration, over-fishing, and government ineptitude when it comes to formulating sound environmental policy. The author clearly has divided his time between research libraries and the field. He has visited the underwater living quarters of scientists off the coast of Key West, climbed the towering oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and gone diving off Monterey where Californians keep sharp lookout for white sharks, all with the intention to see up-close what's going on.At the start of the chapter on offshore petroleum drilling, Helvarg quotes an oil company spokesman recalling the Huntington Beach oil spill of 1990. The spokesman says, "Then this Hollywood star pulls up in his limo, must have been half a block long, wanting to know what we've done to his beach. And I'm thinking, hey that limo of yours doesn't run on sunbeams you know."Helvarg has been beneath the surface of the sea to examine precisely the rampant devastation of fragile ecosystems, the destruction of coral reefs by disease, human waste, phosphate blanketing, and sheer overuse, particularly dive boats that anchor rather than use fixed moorings.Although the Alaskan coast dominates the news in 2001 whenever discussion turns to offshore drilling, Helvarg noted, "There are some 4,000 platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico today. Offshore drilling accounts for 20 percent of U.S. oil production and 27 percent of its natural gas. Despite heated debate over drilling off California, Florida, Alaska, and North Carolina, 93 percent of all present offshore production takes place in the gulf." He found that many of those expensive rigs are run by disciplined crews who produce lucrative returns for investors.Helvarg has meticulously and colorfully described how the oil industry was created in North America, and included a brief review of the movie industry and the media impact it produced. For example, he cited the 1953 film "Thunder Bay" starring Jimmy

THIS BOOK IS GREAT!!!!

It's not just a book -- it's an adventure! This book is full of interesting information yet amazingly fun to read as it takes us on an exciting journey around America's oceans. I learned much about various threats to the marine environment and the struggles dedicated people are launching against those threats.