Eye of the Albatross Visions of Hope and Survival

"One of the most delightful natural history studies in decades." The Boston Globe Eye of the Albatrosstakes us soaring to locales where whales, sea turtles, penguins, and shearwaters flourish in their own quotidian rhythms. Carl Safina's guide and inspiration is an albatross he calls Amelia, whose life and far-flung flights he describes in fascinating detail. Interwoven with recollections of whalers and famous explorers,Eye of the Albatrossprobes the unmistakable environmental impact of the encounters between man and marine life. Safina's perceptive and authoritative portrait results in a transforming ride to the ends of the Earth for the reader, as well as an eye-opening look at the health of our oceans. Carl Safina, a MacArthur Fellow, Pew Fellow, and winner of a Lannan Literary award for literature, is the president of the Blue Ocean Institute.The New York Times Book Reviewcalled hisSong for the Blue Ocean"a landmark book," and it was selected as aNew York TimesNotable Book of the Year, aLos Angeles TimesBest Nonfiction Selection, and aLibrary JournalBest Science Book Selection. In 2003, Safina was awarded a National Academies Communication Award "for his clear and vivid exposition of the scientific process and the many and varied relationships between living organisms and their ocean ecosystem." Winner of the John Burroughs Medal ABoston GlobeBest Book At the lonely center of the largest ocean lies a group of islands brimming with wildlife. And there, like a feathered nation, half a million goose-size albatross chicks await foraging parents who may be gone for weeks in search of food. Our narrator in this extraordinary place is Carl Safina; his guide and inspiration is Amelia, a hardworking parent albatross wearing a state-of-the-art satellite tracking transmitter. While scouring the ocean for just one meal for her patiently waiting famished chick, Amelia is carried by her giant wings as many as seven thousand miles from her nest. As we travel with her, Amelia becomes both host and vehicle, sweeping us along on her journeys, sharing the world as an albatross sees it. Weaving the albatross's metaphorical and real-life powers, Safina blends literature, history, adventure, science, and in-the-moment action. Amelia's travels through space and time connect us with the explorers and hunters, including Charles Darwin, Herman Melville, and James Cook, who first penetrated the remote and forbidding albatross realms. Traveling the trackless ocean, Amelia likewise introduces us to the rhythms of whales and sea turtles, sharks and seals, fishes and seabirds. Watching a green turtle emerge from the surf wash to breed, we marvel at a creature that makes her first hesitant transition from the float of water to the stranding alienation of land as her ancestors have done for 150 million years. Safina shows us that the drive to survive has carried these creatures through historic ravages of hunters and plunderers, and that despite a slew of new challenges, albatrosses and their ocean neighbors will likely survive long into the future. Amelia's lifethe life we all shareis an epic of struggle and hope, of the power of sheer persistence and life's resilience. Winner of the John Burroughs Medal ABoston GlobeBest Book "Safina again opens our eyes . . . The travels are epic, the animals awe-inspiring, and the realized message of the unity of life is important and uplifting."Gus Speth, Dean of the Yale School for Environmental Studies "Truly magnificentSafina has done as much as anyone save Cousteau to change our relationship with the aquatic world."Bill McKibben,The Boston Globe "[Safina] delivers a mess

Carl Safina is the vice president for Ocean Conservation at the National Audubon Society and founder of its Living Oceans Program. After publication of Song for the Blue Ocean (0-8050-6122-3), hailed by The New York Times as “a landmark book,” he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. He is also a visiting fellow at Yale. He lives in Amagansett, New York.