Helen Scales examines the impact of environmental changes caused by global warming on the earth’s oceans. She provides examples of the detrimental effects as well as those where changes have brought back marine species, such as results of international agreements and “no-take” zones. This book contains detailed information about the ocean’s history, vanishing species, destruction of habitats, attempts at restoration, and the outlook for the future. The author outlines the reasons that biodiversity is important. She analyzes critical elements of impact on marine life, such as rising temperatures, rising acidity, harmful bacteria and viruses, plastic contamination. She also spells out plenty of reasons why everyone should care about the seas.

I appreciate her “big picture” evaluation of marine ecosystems, including how mass migrations caused by species trying to find a new habitat can upset the ecological balance. Scales cites the latest worry that giant corporations will harm ecosystems and marine life by mining the ocean floor, which, once disturbed by heavy machinery, will take thousands of years (if ever) to regenerate. This would have a domino effect on the cleanliness of the water, harmful sound pollution that could kill or maim or reroute migration paths of many thousands of marine animals and decrease the ability of the ocean to contribute to clean air. The ocean is one of the largest carbon dioxide absorbers and produces oxygen through photosynthesis. There are important reasons to protect our oceans!

The optimism indicated by the title has to do with the many successes that have already occurred when countries have clamped down on trawling, dredging, and other types of commercial harvesting. The author provides many examples of the ways in which individuals can make decisions on a smaller scale that, taken together, can make a large positive difference. She is basically making a case for short-term sacrifices that will yield long-term benefits.

The author’s love for the wonders of the marine world is obvious, and she offers a level of hope not often found in environmental books. She states, <i>“I hope this book will offer an antidote to the rising tide of eco-anxiety and fears for the future of the planet….and turn that fear into commitment and initiative.”</i> Highly recommended.

I am very heartened that we are paying more and more attention to the oceans, as evidenced by the growing number of publications on the subject. For most of its history, humanity has ignored what lies beneath the waves because it's out of our reach, but with better science and technology, we finally have the means to learn more about this vast part of our world. And it's about time, because the same technology is threatening these still-unknown ecosystems (think deep-sea mining or carbon dioxide).

Author Helen Scales, who has written about various underwater wonders in her previous books, this time focuses directly on the issue of saving the eponymous ”wild seas”. To find solutions for the future, she dives deep into the ocean's past, looking for clues by studying past extinctions.

Thanks to the publisher, Grove Atlantic (Atlantic Monthly Press), and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Another fantastic book from Helen Scales! “What the Wild Sea Can Be” lays out a compelling exploration of the ocean's past, present, and future. The book takes readers through the ancient ocean, extinction events, and the profound changes the ocean is undergoing in the Anthropocene era.

Highlighting issues like invasive species, bird flu, deep sea mining, unsustainable fisheries, climate change, and more, Scales highlights the plethora of threats impacting marine life (& all of our lives subsequently), as well as stories of hope and positive change.

Helen Scales also evaluates and notes the challenges and potential of Marine Protected Areas.

When sharing solutions and best actions to help the ocean, the book pushes how systemic change will be the most impactful, by holding polluters accountable and advocating for a plastics treaty, to highlighting effective marine management and policy changes that can help protect ecosystems.

“What the Wild Sea Can Be” is a thought-provoking and informative read that is a warning and a call to action. The book provides readers with a deep understanding of the ocean's complexities and the urgent need to protect the sea. I think anyone interested in marine biology, conservation, and the future of our planet's oceans would benefit from reading this book!

Rating: 4.5 stars

So amazingly written! I was immediately pulled in, it doesn’t read as a dry academic text as some science books can. There were parts in the middle that started to slump a little, in part because of my burnout but also because the science info could become a little heavy.

A look at the past and present of the ocean and the animals/wildlife that live there, using this information to see how we can save it! Great intro about how we can be fearful but also hopeful and use both those feelings to take action before it’s too late 🤍

I’ve looooved the ocean since I was a kid! I hated science classes but the ocean, was the one thing I paid attention to 😂 I am terrified of the deep ocean/waters in general (Thalassophobia) but my arguably healthy fear is also paired with a very deep respect for ocean life 🌊 which is why I was so excited to read this!

Explores some of the dangers facing the future of the oceans and marine life including overfishing, microplastics, and climate change. Each chapter focuses on one of the issues we are facing, a few species that are affected, and what is being done/can be done to stop or sometimes reverse the damage being done.

The last couple of chapters especially focus a lot on different methods being tried to save the ocean! Throughout the book and in the end, we learn about marine reserves, reef restoration, and that no matter what method scientists use the only thing that can have enough of an impact is cutting carbon emissions and having stricter restrictions on fishing industries.

Scales also reminds us that boycotting and using our voices can help make changes in whatever ways we can, but to not feel bad for what we can’t do because it’s ultimately up to governments and corporations to make the biggest changes since they’re the ones causing the most damage.

Love that the author uses indigenous names for places/settings! Like Aotearoa is the Māori people’s name for what is New Zealand. She also points out the issues we are facing are mostly due to colonialism and colonial countries in power that don’t have to rely on ocean life the way indigenous peoples do. It’s a reminder that everything is connected and none of us are safe and protected until all of us, including ocean life, are free and protected!

I do hope the final version will have photos of the animals mentioned because I did have to look some of them up because I didn’t know what they were/looked like.

Overall it was informative without being dry/boring and kept me engaged for the most part! It reinforced my love of the ocean and wanting to save it, while also teaching me about its history. I’d highly recommend to anyone who enjoys science books (or doesn’t as much, like me) and has an interest in environmental justice, marine life, or the affects of climate change and how we can do better!

Some of my favorite quotes:

“An alternative view is to think of fish and other sea life not as a resource to profit from but as animals that have their own right to exist.”

“Unhitching humanity from business as usual, shifting the underlying drivers that cause so many problems, and finding new ways of living with the changing ocean is where truly radical views of the future lie.”

“We all depend on healthy seas for the air we breathe, for the falling rain, for the livable world we inhabit. For millions of people, a healthy ocean means food and jobs.”

I wanted to read this one, but I am unable to download the book because it is unfortunately archived.

After reading other reviews, I may not immediately rush out to find more books by this author right away, but by itself this was a really good book, accessible enough for the general reader while not dumbing down the science. Reading the arc version I have no idea what photos, diagrams and other imagery will be included, so I hope there are lots of images in the finished version, because while I spend many hours watching deep-sea dive footage most readers do not know what all the critters and ecosystems look like that the book describes. I especially liked that in each chapter we don't just get the depressing litany of all that is going wrong, but also things that are looking hopeful or projects that offer a possible and very real step towards a more sustainable and healthy future.

Climate change is a timely subject, and I’m always open to nature science nonfiction that discuses it in detail—and doubly so because it was from the author, Helen Scales, who wrote The Brilliant Abyss (one of my favorite books from the year it was released). But while the changes to the sea, how it will affect animals and people alike, is a very important matter to learn about, I ultimately DNFed What the Wild Sea Can Be. I kept setting it aside and was never able to be as interested in the way the information was being imparted as I assumed I would, based on my reading experience with Scales’ other book. I still think this is an important book that other people will enjoy. So I encourage readers to check out other reviews and form their own opinion.

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

In What the Wild Sea Can Be, Helen Scales shares a comprehensive look at the challenges facing the ocean today, from climate change, to pollution and overfishing. This exploration is starkly honest about the damage humans have already done (and are still doing) to marine life and habitats. And yet, all along the way, Scales offers glimmers of hope, with examples of successful cleanup efforts, species revitalization efforts, and growing resistance to practices that treat the ocean as a resource to be extracted and exploited. What the Wild Sea Can Be emphasizes repeatedly that it’s not too late to make difficult but doable changes, thereby shaping a better future for the oceans that sustain us all.

This is such a remarkable and hopeful book—a Silent Spring for our 21st century time. Helen Scales’s passion for her subject comes through on every page. One minute, I’d be nerding out with her as she detailed the wonders of sea life. The next, I’d be nodding along as she explained how cutting subsidies to the fossil fuel industry could help slash carbon emissions. There’s an unexpected social-justice theme to the book, too. At different moments, Scales laments that the people who have done the least to contribute to pollution and climate change will be the ones to suffer most from rising sea levels and an ocean that can no longer support life as it once did.

I was especially struck by one of the book’s closing thoughts: “Living together on this blue planet, we are all ocean people.” The sense of unity and a shared future is the guiding spirit of What the Wild Sea Can Be.

Another entertaining read from Helen Scales on life in the sea. I recently read one of her other books, so this was maybe a little too soon after the previous one. There was quite some overlap between this book and the deep sea book, and also within the book there is some repetition between chapters. But it's not a big deal to me, the author is a good writer and the ocean-related stories are amazing either way. This book focuses a lot on ocean conservation stories for different kinds of organisms. A nice read for ocean enthusiasts and scientists.

What the Wild Sea Can Be is a really delightful book to read which can be a bit surprising considering how the matter of climate change makes many of us feel (disempowered, overwhelmed, like we're facing an insurmountable obstacle). Though this book discusses the ways in which a number of species and ocean habitats have been impacted by human activity (be it the overall effects of climate change itself, overfishing, loss of sea ice), it gives us glimpses of hope not only with the ways that some species have seemed to adapt to the changes, but even moreso with the ways in which people have noticed our impacts on the planet and worked to mitigate their worst effects. These glimpses empowered me to feel as though I could be an instrument in change and that this change is both possible and has tangible impacts on the species and habitats we hope to protect. The book was filled with wonderiment about the many species in the ocean which I really enjoyed, and I learned so much about many species of which I knew very little. My biggest gripes come from two sections of the book. In one, when the author is discussing methods of coral reef restoration, she dreams up an odd scenario where tiny robots would be able to help us scale up these efforts. However, it seemed very out-of-place in a book about climate change, which in order to combat we would need to scale down production of items massively not the least of which would be technology as they require massive amounts of rare metals and minerals that harm the environment and those people who mine them. This felt especially odd considering the critiques the author has of deep sea mining, an industry which is trying to mine metals and minerals for the production of technology. The other section which I did not enjoy was when the author discussed women-owed aquaculture enterprises in Maine and utilized quotes which play into the women as Madonna trope in which women are seen as naturally more nurturing, loving, empathetic than men and as their natural "good" foil. This was wholly unnecessary for the book as there are ways to discuss the important and interesting work these women are doing without attributing it to the inherent nature of their sex instead of a conscious effort to undo harm wrought by the whole of (primarily Western) society (men and women included). I wish the author would have instead focused on how they came to this work and what inspired them instead of their sex. Nevertheless, I found this book a fun and fast read that, while giving me some climate dread, also instilled climate hope.

An educational and informative read, there was a bit of repetition of information in the chapter about deep sea mining from one of her previous books but still a great read.