The call of the sea and it's dangers is brought ...
358817
The call of the sea and it's dangers is brought alive in this vivid and heart wrenching tale of hardship, loss and salvation.
3186615
The book is the story of the author's awakening to the dangers that face our oceans and why that is important to everyday people and why they should care. It is also the story of her recovering from an injury and overcoming her fears of the ocean.

The environmental story is well written and contains good information for the lay reader. Anyone with knowledge of marine science or environmental science will most likely be aware of all of the issues presented and will find little, if any new information. For the average person with little understanding, it will serve to open your eyes to the dangers face by the world's oceans.

The other part of the story is the story of this author's kayak injury and how she recovers over time. To be totally honest, I really didn't care about her problems. Many people suffer injuries or illnesses that are life threatening of life changing ad don't write books about them. If it helped her heal to tell us about her dental and bowel problems, great.but I have zero interest in hearing it. It only serves to make the read longer and more tedious.
921613
A  good story about a difficult summer in 1916 off the NJ coast.  I had heard about this incident but had not read anything about it.  It was well done and scary to think about.  The thought of being attacked by a shark is frightening to contemplate.  Reminds me of the USS Indianapolis, a US Navy cruiser which was sunk in 1945 by a Japanese sub and hundereds of men went in to shark infested waters before those who were still alive were rescued I believe 3 days later.  A good read..
2641664
Crimes Against Humanity A1H1W2
by Joyce A. Kovelman (SMN)
Friesen Press 2013, 520 pp., no price given, p/b.
This is a novel about the very real possibility of a pandemic, in this case infecting the Earths oceans and thereby threatening planetary life in general. As such, it is a warning, based on sound scientific evidence, of the dangers of biological pathogens getting out of control. Joyce speaks as a psychologist and scientist herself and has created a cast of characters, the central one being Kate, a marine biologist who is part of a study group that identifies the danger of this new pathogen and its implications. The overall message is one of the interconnectedness of life and the unsustainable relationship between humanity and earth if continued on the basis of exploitation and pollution. More especially, it is a warning against the continued creation of bio-weapons that can reach into all parts of life. The message is all the more dramatic for being conveyed in the form of a novel.
David Lorimer
Programme Director
Scientific and Medical Network
Editor, Network Review

Gibliston Mill, Colinsburgh, Leven, Fife KY9 1JS - 01333 340490

dl@scimednet.org
www.scimednet.org
511103
There are many risks in its back and one risk in its face.
4800216
This book made my soul ache and as the result of what I learned by reading it, I will never buy or eat swordfish or tuna again. The world of commercial fishing of big fish has been fully exposed by Linda Greenlaw for the world to see. So I thank her for her inadvertent expose. I will warn all prospective readers of the absolutely gut-wrenching and horrific torture scene of a hapless Blue Shark, described in Chapter 11, pp. 195-196. I intend to report that confession by Ms. Greenlaw to whatever animal conservation or humane protective organization can investigate it.
3564709
I cannot believe how brave these fishermen are. The weather sometimes is so scary, and treacherous, yet these men brave the dangers, to bring back crab for people to enjoy!! I think its a very exciting series.
573613
Richard Henry Dana catured the spirit of humans and the majesty of the sea.  The rounding of icy waters off South America to watching swimming dolphins was a descriptive marvel to us who have seen it all on PBS.  Mr. Dana's observations of the South Sea natives hired in their special boats to 'surf' cargo ashore in the waves of mid-California foretold of a phenomenon that was utterly impossible to predict.  From going to the (then) vapid student halls of Harvard Univ. to swaying 100 ft over the raging waves of the ocean, this book might be good as required reading for those students entertaining a different course in life.
161321
This is an interesting and engaging step into history when going to the beach first became popular and it was widely believed that sharks were harmless.  Somebody should have told the shark, who seemingly gets carried from its normal environment and becomes increasingly violent as it gets more and more disoriented.  The attacks on humans at the seashore are horrifying, and the story builds to a climax as the shark moves up a creek far away from the ocean and homes in on boys splashing in the summer sun.
I found this book to be in the same genre as "Isaac's Storm," in which we learn of the misconceptions of nature held by Americans at the time.  A great read for the beach...and you'll be more careful about dipping a toe in the ocean!
1099096
This book is a fabulous script of the efforts of one man and his salvage team.
The trials they have to face, the dangers at every turn.
A great read for anyone interested in the sea and its perils
3099072
To the point it tells a lurid tail implying more then you would dare to imagine.
2528633
This is scary to watch.  Not a little bit scary, but very, very scary.  This is the Food, Inc. of waste and plastic is at it's core.  Watching this is a wake-up call to our throwaway society, but also a serious look at how the rest of the world handles it's trash (or not). We have created a toilet bowl out of out water, and it's getting worse.  After watching this, I no longer eat tuna, swordfish, or any larger seafood.  Whenever I see a story about fish populations falling, autism, the effects of using herbicides on plants and lawns, and a host of other problems, I see viewing this documentary as a very late wake-up call.  The amount of water on this planet has not changed since Earth was formed, but the last 50 years has changed the balance of what is in the water, and it's not good.  Scary, but very, VERY, necessary to watch.
3568629
Desiring materials can get you into trouble like it did for some of the characters. I would have liked to know more about what was hiding under the ocean but each chapter has you on the edge of your seat.
1057713
"Tijuana Straits" is an understated tale of environmental ruin and personal redemption along the wild, untamed border of California and Mexico. This is not so much a "surf noir" book like Kem Nunn's other novels "Tapping the Source" and "The Dogs of Winter." It is more of a novel about environmental impact on an area and its people.

Sam "The Gull" Fahey, former surf legend and prison inmate, lives in a trailer within walking distance of the U.S./Mexican border. He spends his days tending his worm farm, doing speed, saving indigenous birds and hunting down dangerous stray dogs for the bounty money. He surfs no more because his home break along the Tijuana Straits has long since been poisoned by the toxic runoff from factories based just on the other side of the border in Tijuana.

Magdalena is a smart Mexican woman, a survivor who saw her mother drowned by the Mexican government opening a dam's spillway to flood out shantytown residents to make way for new corporate development. She now works for a lawyer compiling evidence against toxic factories on the Tijuana side of the border.  Magdalena's research begins to hit too close to home for the bad guys, who attempt to burn her files and then hire the horrific Armando to kill her. Magdalena is driven away from Tijuana by the murder attempt and she ends up being saved and nursed back to health by Fahey, a shell of a man himself. She convinces Fahey to help her, and sends him back down to Tijuana to retrieve her files. Meanwhile Armando is headed north across the border, looking for her with an aim to completing his unfinished business.

Nunn uses his skill as a writer to give depth to all of his main characters. Take the villain Armando for example. Armando is fearsome, yes, but he is no cookie cutter. We go back into his past to see what made him that way. He wanted to escape the poverty of his upbringing and become a boxer, but instead ends up working in a factory in Tijuana gluing leather covers onto car steering wheels. Armando finds a wife in the factories as well, but the fumes in their work environments are so toxic that their son is born with deformities and dies. Armando escapes his pain by sniffing glue and using various other drugs. When his wife finally leaves him he traces her to a woman's shelter where Magdalena volunteers and he ends up blaming her for his troubles.

One problem I had with "Tijuana Straits" is Kem Nunn's love of long sentences. Sometimes one sentence goes on and on for half a page or more, getting harder and harder to follow with each line. I found this tendency distracting, especially in the second half of the book. Also, if you are a fan of surfing from the author's other books, be advised that there is very little of it here.

I believe that many like "Tijuana Straits" because of its environmental message. Other than bringing to light these problems along the U.S. / Mexico border area in California, however, very little is actually done about them. I would have liked to see something more accomplished by the end. Also, more of a balanced discussion of the Mexican maquiladoras (manufacturing operations in a Free Trade Zone) would have led to a stronger, more convincing story rather than the one-sided "take my word for it - factories are bad" angle Nunn mostly takes. The issue is not so completely black and white as this.
2985506
Death and destruction are elements that remain on the sidelines in our reality. When we hear about tragedy on the news, it's not real for us until, of course, it happens to us.

Ben Harrington is one of these people, a project manager, a man of everyday routine with a normal life and a normal pregnant wife, Sara. But reality is taken away from him and thrown in an overdrive when one sunny day in Southern California, the nuclear plant where he works starts to tremble and shake under the onslaught of an earthquake. Ben Harrington then becomes the victim of a reality that we cannot possibly comprehend.
It is with the implosion of the nuclear plant that displaces the lives of all the plant workers and the people living around the surrounding area. Suddenly they find themselves in a situation where the choices that they will make will inconceivably lead to their very survival. Choices, that have long term connotations, and consequences that may not change the future for the better. What would you do if you were caught in their shoes? Stay home or flee?

I would like to stress here what the book description already covers, because I think it's worth reading and contemplating over again and again: As of January, 2011, there are 442 nuclear power plants operating or under construction in the world. The United States has 104 of these plants, France has 58, and Japan has 54.

Barbara Griffin, armed with a degree in biology and chemistry, has spun a web of dire situations for her readers to delve into, and perhaps conclude their own understanding of the reality in which they reside.
1179589
The acting is excellent, as expected.  The series of mishaps seem caused by some lack of caution and risk management on our hero, or else this boat is not seaworthy enough.  The hatch to the insides is not waterproof.  With the kind of stormy seas this boat runs into, it is a miracle that it did not sink in the middle of the storm, instead of much later.  I could go on an on with this argument, but you can see it for yourself.
1877555
I loved it, as the 5 stars indicate, but it is a very scary scenario.  SALMON, BASS, COD and TUNA...pay attention! The world's fish are not theoretically being depleted and/or erroneously farmed.  This has been happening for decades to humanity's loss!  This does for fish in what Michael Pollan's book The Botany of Desire did for four plants.  The scary thing is that fishing cannot be controlled by the US, as the bigger fish travel across the oceans. Other fish like wild salmon are being depleted, while the faming of Salmon is ruining the environments where it is taking place. Other nations are demanding their "fair share", and this should be condemned.  On a personal level, eat what you catch, and throw back what you cannot eat.  It is clear we need to pay attention and, using the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Guide to fish, order fish from reputable fish mongers and in restaurants only when they can tell us the origin of the fish, and how it was caught. Here is an important  tip: Never eat farmed Salmon, always eat  farmed tilapia. Here's another tip, generally,  eat line-caught swordfish (yet not long-line), but don't eat a lot of it (mercury). Know what is happening in our food halls and restaurants, thenorder and catch your fish sustainably.