Ocean's End Travels Through Endangered Seas

Ocean's End is one of the most compelling examples of how bad Coastal Zone policy has destroyed vast areas of ocean and shore. It is not too strong a point that human beings in recent history have behaved themselves very, very badly as they looted the seas and dumped their waste and industrial toxins down river or directly into the sea. I am using this book in my International Integrated Coastal Zone Management class as the first assigned textbook. (...)Why? Because I want my graduate students to first see how wonderful the world's oceans and coastal zones are and secondly, how incredibly stupid and short sighted we can be as we mismanage our responsibilities as stewards of these ecosystems. Colin Woodward has done a wonderful job of narrating a gripping, exciting, and enfuriating story from the killing of the Black Sea to the plundering of the Newfoundland Grand Banks and all of the other case studies in between. This is a book worth reading and also one that is compellingly interesting and enjoyable. Take it on your next trip or read it and then take my web-based graduate class in International Coastal Management. You'll be ahead of yourself!

Each chapter in this book tells a story illustrating a different crisis, and each gives something new to be outraged over. The stories are well-written, and Ocean's End gives the best summary of global warming that I have read. It is easy to understand (making the reader feel almost intelligent). I would recommend this to everyone, and wish there was a way to get this into high school curricula.My only complaint is the summary. Woodard draws the reader's passions out, but doesn't suggest explicit ways to get involved in the issues. I ended up writing letters to my congressional representatives. Read this book, and start your own letter campaign.

Excellent research, good writing and exceptionally important issues. Anyone who would like to learn more about the oceans, how they function and how we are destroying this life source, should read this book. The author also expertly describes the intimate ties between climate change and the oceans. The publisher's are missing an opportunity by not supporting this work more; they are also not fulfilling their responsibility to the present and future generations of all living (and endangered) beasts.

Woodard takes us on a world tour of the crisis facing the oceans. From the Antarctic ice sheet to the Cancer alley of the lower Mississippi, Woodard travelled the globe, interviewing policy makers, scientists, and ordinary people affected by the environmental changes. The style is both readable and rigorous. Woodard takes great pains to make clear what is known and what is not, and while clearly reaching "green" conclusions, he is careful to examine different perspectives. Woodard is a master storyteller. The people he comes across in his travels come to life as each chapter unwinds another environmental and economic tragedy in progress.This is a very human book. Woodard doesn't wallow in the "fish-kissers" moral approach to environmentalism (what did that shrimp do to you?). Nor does he delve too deeply into the minutia of the science affecting a particular ecosystem (Do mollusks have brains?) Instead, he makes a compelling case for how the ongoing degradation affects both the local people who rely on a part of the oceans directly and human life as a whole.I highly recommend this book to all concerned world citizens. We are past worrying about what is the "right" thing to do with respect to the oceans. We need to be concerned about what can be done to prevent a major disruption in the world's economic, climate, and food supply systems.

Balanced and written smartly, this book is impressive for its depth and scope of coverage. Moreover, Woodard's style of allowing the facts and science to speak above the opinions and guesses (which perhaps out number the former) is compelling. Excellence from a first-time author.