“Coral Reefs, Majestic Realms under the Sea”, new book

CORAL REEFS

MAJESTIC REALMS UNDER THE SEA

By Dr. Peter F. Sale

Colorful, exotic, of immense value to humanity, and disappearing rapidly because of our mismanagement of the planet -- we are deluged daily by evocative photos and videos of coral reefs, and most everyone knows their story. But most of us don’t really give a damn – most of us have never seen a reef, and the plight of coral reefs is simply another just-so nature story. With a lifetime enmeshed in coral reef science, Peter Sale has witnessed their scintillating splendor and he does care what happens to them. He also sees their tragedy as an early sign of the wider environmental crisis we’ve built through our selfish disregard for Nature. In this book, Sale takes the reader on a journey to make reefs real, building a sense of awe and wonder that they exist, and a commitment to caring about their plight. Together we explore why the reef story has had so little impact and we reframe the enormous challenge humanity faces as a noble venture to steer the planet into safe waters, waters that might even retain some coral reefs.

Excerpt from the Preface: Since 2011, I’ve reached the conclusion that patiently explaining the cost of continuing our present patterns of behavior is just not working to get us to move. Like deer in the headlights, we stand, and we wait, and we watch, and then we take token steps or continue as before.

And so, I turn to stories from a coral reef. Because I believe that, if we can reconnect with the natural world, then maybe we can come to actually appreciate, in a visceral way, that our civilization cannot survive on this glorious rocky planet hurtling through the universe if we go on as we have been. We must take care to preserve the capacity of ecological systems to sustain their integrity and resilience.

The biosphere is not simply here, one fact about our world; the biosphere makes it possible for us to be here, and reefs are sublime portions of the biosphere. In fact, reefs are so sublime, fascinating, and marvellous they make connection easy. But first we need the stories. I believe the wonder that reefs can inspire can lift our spirits and drive the reforms that we must make. Just possibly, reefs might help us act sufficiently fast to save them too.

Excerpt from Chapter 1: A coral reef is fundamentally improbable. By any reasonable measure, coral reefs should not exist, and yet they do. Earth’s oceans have been enriched by flourishing coral reefs over most of the last half billion years; by their existence, reefs testify to the resilient fecundity of life, its proliferating diversity, and its seemingly limitless capacity to endure even as the world changes. Particularly now, when the full extent of our human-caused global environmental crisis is becoming clear, the long-term success of coral reefs should inspire us, providing the strength and determination to mend our ways and steer our planet towards a better future. And yet that success does not inspire. Because we do not know reefs. We only know of them, and most of us scarcely know that.

A snorkeler swims over a massive Porites bommie at Wilson Island, southern Great Barrier Reef. © Victor Huertas/Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service

PETER F. SALE

MAJESTIC REALMS UNDER THE SEA CORAL REEFS

Coral Reefs, Majestic Realms under the Sea

Peter F. Sale 288 pages (25 b/w illustrations) Yale University Press Buy it at Yale University Press Buy it at amazon.com.au

Dr. Peter F. Sale is an aquatic environmental scientist. As a graduate student at University of Toronto, he studied the threatened Aurora Trout in remote lakes in the Temagami region in 1962 and 1963. He then gained a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, commencing a lifetime of research into ecology of coral reefs, tropical coastal management, and ecology of fishes, which spanned a career at the University of Sydney, (1968-87), University of New Hampshire (1988-93), University of Windsor (1994-2006), and most recently United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (2007-2014). He remains Distinguished University Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Windsor, and has lived with his wife Donna in the Muskoka region of Ontario since 2006, continuing to write and speak on critical environmental issues. His 2011 book, Our Dying Planet, told the story of our impacts on the environment from the perspective of an ecologist who has seen environmental decline with his own eyes; his new book with Yale UP, Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms Under the Sea aspires to reveal the sheer wondrousness of these ecosystems.