By: Ziv Ferguson
It wasn’t until recently that I acquired the book “The World is Blue” by the famous, and boundary breaking diver, Silvia Earle. As a diver who likes to read, there was no excuse for me not to read her book, so this is that book review! Sylvia Earle started her career as one of the few women working in marine biology. Despite this, she followed her passion, coming of age as recreational diving was just beginning to get its feet off the ground. She was the first woman to head the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and has inspired divers around the world for helping to diversify the diving industry. With all her experience underwater in the depths of recreational diving and beyond, she is probably one of the world's most knowledgeable ocean researchers and I am glad to have gained some of that knowledge and experience from her book.
This book structure follows different listed areas of the ocean that are experiencing problems caused by humans. Then she goes into depth on how these problems are truly affecting the ocean and the animals that live there. For example, a chapter would start with giving an overview of overfishing and then go into great detail on the problem using facts, possible solutions, and personal anecdotes. This means that the reader gets not only a good overview of many different problems that are facing our oceans but also a deep understanding of each of them which is a difficult achievement in such a short book.
Sylvia Earle wrote this book very well and very informatively. Trying to write a book including the many of the problems facing our ocean today and giving readers an in-depth look at all of the mentioned problems is an extremely hard task, and I have not read any other book that succeeds at it to the level this book does. She not only made the book very engaging and informative for people who are new to ocean conservation, but it continued to keep me interested despite my knowledge of ocean conservation and ocean issues. I was never bored while reading, and if you do listen to the audiobook the reader’s voice is a very good match to Sylvia Earle’s voice.
My one criticism of this book was that there was a lot of basic information at the beginning of chapters that a person who already knows about ocean issues might find unnecessary to read, but other than that it was a super fun book because I got to read about many of Sylvia Earle’s experiences in the ocean- which was worth it. I would recommend this book to all people, but especially people who do not have a great understanding of ocean issues because of how well these problems are presented. Additionally, even if you are not new to ocean issues, I would highly recommend this book just on the basis that I think all divers and people interested in ocean and marine biology should know who Sylvia Earle is, and the contributions she has made to ocean conservation. Finally, I would like to leave you with one last quote from Sylvia Earl, “Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”
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