Beautifully written, an inspiring book about some of the earth's most amazing creatures

books:

	• Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur Carl Safina Holt Paperbacks, 2007 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beautifully written, an inspiring book about some of the earth's most amazing creatures

I have always loved sea turtles and Safina's book has left me with a greater appreciation & desire to see these wonderful animals protected. This book is written so that it is both informative and entertaining. Carl Safina's insights, perspective, and style are really engaging. The language he uses to explain his travels to the reader draw one into the world of the sea turtle. I am so impressed by Safina's devotion to the environment and his ability to express himself in words, that I have recently purchased Eye of the Albatross and Song for the Blue Ocean (also by Safina) from Amazon.com!

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What happens on a Turtle Safari?

The travels of the Sea Turtle. How does the human population effected their world and how does this effect us? Why should we care?
Read about just how sensitive the life of the Sea Turtle is.
Scientific, heartfelt, Ecco minded... Draw your own conclusion, how will you help?

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An incredible story of both humans and turtles

Safina gave a public lecture at my university (near where he grew up on Long Island) last year about Leatherbacks. He speaks with even more passion than he writes! We purchased a number of (signed!) copies of Voyage of the Turtle and Song for the Blue Ocean.

Safina joins scientists, fishermen and conservationists from all over the world to learn about the turtles. He accompanies, to name a few, a shrimper off the east coast of the US, turtle counters on remote Pacific islands, swordfishermen near Canada, high-tech biologists in Monterrey Bay, and so many more. It is an incredible adventure laced with stories of the animals, people, science, cultures, politics, myths, technology and nature that Safina encounters. It is really as much a story about humanity as it is about turtles.

The book is simultaneously depressing and uplifting. It reveals the horrific and heroic things humans are capable of. Much of it is simply shocking: the number of sea animals, including turtles, that died for every shrimp you eat is outrageous; Leatherbacks that nest in Mexico spend their time in Japan; changing the shape of a fishing hook slightly can save 90% more turtles; etc.

The turtles' situation is dire, like all other conservation issues. Safina weaves many conservation themes together, while not being "preachy." This would be an amazing book to read in a biology class at any level.

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A must-read for all turtle friends!

My husband gave me the book, and I read it within a few days. It is entertaining, informative, and grabs your attention. I thought I knew much about sea turtles, but this book truly opened a new world to me. I especially liked how Carl Safina discusses the conflicts between humans and turtles in developing countries, and shows ways to find compromises between turtles and humans so both can live. This is certainly a bok I will read a second or third time.

Traipsing after turtles

The human diaspora across the planet has been Nature's most jarring event since the Cretaceous. Not since an asteroid slammed into the Caribbean 65 million years ago has anything exceeded what our species has done to upset the diversity of life. A mysterious group of animals, leftovers from that bolide, is revealing its secrets to enquiring scientists. The sea-going turtles, whose peregrinations around the world's oceans, are revealing new information about their enigmatic lives. Carl Safina followed the turtles and the people studying them to describe the findings and what they mean. This brilliant account reveals turtle life and the threats they endure.

After reminding us that only seven species of sea turtle remain, Safina visits the Caribbean to describe the great Leatherbacks coming ashore and nesting. Emerging through the night's surf, she finds a particular spot, one which may require more than one attempt, then with her back to the site, uses her rear flippers to blindly scoop out a hole to drop her eggs. Safina describes his wonder at her ability to do this without seeing the effect of her digging. Not all turtles manage this without mishap, and in a few cases the caring observers do the digging for her. In either case she drops her eggs, covers them with sand in a way to camouflage the spot, then returns to the sea. From the surf line, she swims away to some unknown destination. When the eggs hatch, the surviving young follow her to the sea. For the males, it's the last time they will feel land under their flippers.

The destination long remained a mystery until tagged turtles began appearing thousands of kilometres away. Safina joins a boat seeking Swordfish over the Canadian Grand Banks as a means of finding the giant turtles. Leatherbacks plying these waters are of Caribbean origin. Those females feed on Cannonball Jellyfish along the Carolinas before shifting north, later to cruise the vastness of the Atlantic to the Azores. It's a fabulous migration, but there are bigger surprises in store.

Along the eastern Pacific, Leatherbacks and other species were once common. Nature's most voracious predator has sharply reduced their number, chiefly by removing eggs just after they're laid. Villagers consumed or sold them in vast numbers. After a tour of a miniscule beach nesting site in Costa Rica, Safina meets with various students of turtle habits. He flies with Sandy Lanham and Laura Sarti to count turtles on the Mexican Coast, where lengthy beaches no longer experience turtle numbers that once was the case. To learn what has happened to them, Safina must cross the Pacific to Papua on the west end of New Guinea. With researchers working in the area with local people, he learns of ways poverty-stricken villagers can be employed to assist in saving turtles. Here, where humans might have first contacted the Leatherback after over 100 million years without a serious enemy, turtles exhibit their vulnerability to our predatory ways. The Pacific Leatherbacks are beset by those who don't even intend it. Longliner fishing boats string over 1.4 billion hooks per year on lines running to 90 kilometres length. The hooks snag flippers or are swallowed with lines. Turtles need air, just like us, but drown before the lines are brought up. Exact statistics are hard to come by, Scafina notes, but the evidence points to these boats as the most destructive force to turtles after egg poaching.

The author notes, however, that cures are available to help restore turtle populations. Beaches in some nations are declared "off limits" and patrolled. New hook designs that catch fish without snagging turtles have been developed, but need universal application - a difficult task with conservative fishermen. In Florida, shoreline communities have learned to douse lights to protect nesting sites - otherwise the hatchlings cannot find the sea. Incorporating local help has proven effective by showing how tourism and controlled collection can bring in more money than simple predation produces. In some species, there have been gains in new populations. Are the rising numbers significant? They apply only to certain species and locations. The greatest obstacle is the issue of turtle maturity, since breeding adults may take a human generation to start laying eggs. It means patience, dedication and continuing watchfulness on conditions are required. An elusive factor is what effect climate change will have on beaches and the sealife the turtles need to survive. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

?Magnificent . . . A joyful, hopeful book. Safina gives us ample reasons to be enthralled by this astonishing ancient animal?and ample reasons to care.??Los Angeles Times As Carl Safina?s compelling natural history adventure makes clear, the fate of the leatherback turtle is in our hands. The distressing decline of these ancient sea turtles in Pacific waters and their surprising recovery in the Atlantic illuminate the results?both positive and negative?of our interventions and the lessons that can be applied, globally, to restore the oceans and their creatures.
We accompany award-winning natural history expert Safina and his colleagues as they track leatherbacks across the world?s oceans and onto remote beaches of every continent, including a thrilling journey from Monterey, California, to nesting grounds in Papua, New Guinea. Throughout, in his peerless prose, Safina captures the delicate interaction between these gentle giants and the humans who are playing a significant role in their survival.

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