
Unnatural History of the Sea
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Narrated by:
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Callum M. Roberts
Humanity can make short work of the oceans' creatures. In 1741, hungry explorers discovered herds of Steller's sea cow in the Bering Strait, and in less than 30 years, the amiable beast had been harpooned into extinction. It's a classic story, but a key fact is often omitted. Bering Island was the last redoubt of a species that had been decimated by hunting and habitat loss years before the explorers set sail.
©2007 Island Press (P)2007 Island PressListeners also enjoyed...















Critic reviews
Excellent!
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Incredible book. Should be required reading.
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Roberts does a great job making you aware of this in painstaking, but never laboured, detail.
Particularly interesting is the treatment of secular hero, and Darwin ally, Thomas Huxley, who managed to be hopelessly wrong about the interaction between natural systems and market forces not once, but twice, and who doubtlessly went to his grave thoroughly convinced that it was reality that was the party at fault! His high-handed, patronising treatment of witnesses at his inquiry is cringe-inducing, and gave me a new perspective on the man, and the foibles of intellectual arrogance.
Which, really, is the message of the book. Free markets in the oceans are a disaster. Marine parks and competent regulation are the solution.
At the very least you'll gain an insight into why your grandchildren ended up living off jellyfish...
A great tale of the sea. Read it.
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The seas wasn't made for us to exploit.
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This book is a vivid, excellently written chronicle of the concept of "shifting baselines", which is an important concept in ecology, conservation, and history. The descriptions of the abundance of marine abundance in decades and centuries past sound almost impossible in the present context of fisheries collapse and biodiversity loss. The author narrates the book, and brings a clear enjoyment to the work- even go so far as to create distinct voices for other "characters" (modern and historical persons quoted) in the book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, even those who might not think the subject matter is quite for them.Very engaging re: history, ecology, and policy
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Fabulous book, fabulous narrator...
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The first book I read by Callum Roberts was Oceans of Life, which is also superb, and is more focused on the oceans as ecosystems.
Superb! A unique and important history
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Fish for You
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Not good as an audiobook
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