Entranced by the sea since childhood, Julia Whitty became a marine biologist, working in the field and making documentary films. But her passion for all facets of oceanography transcends any single project or focus. This fascinating, beautifully evocative memoir of Whitty’s long relationship with the ocean is a heartfelt paean to an ecosystem she truly believes is the Deep Blue Home (Mariner, $14.95) of all earthly life. Starting in 1980 on tiny Isla Rasa, a crucial breeding ground for gulls, terns, and storm petrels, moving to Newfoundland later in the decade and returning to Baja California in 2001, this chronicle covers a wide range of topics, from seabirds, the history of whaling (and the surprising roles whales play in the ocean), overfished cod, the long lives of sea turtles (up to 200 years), the even longer lives of some amphibians (a quahog clam is pushing 400), the recent discovery of thriving ecosystems around vents in the ocean floor, and the heavy toll human activities have taken on the sea. For all we know about the ocean, there’s still much that we don’t know.
