Coves of Departure

Thank you to NetGally, author and editor for an ARC.
This book was very interesting. I would recommend this book.

“Coves of Departure: Field Notes from the Sea of Cortez” by John Seibert Farnsworth is a captivating recounting of the author’s experience as a writing professor taking undergraduates on sea kayak expeditions to the Isla Espiritu Santo archipelago each year during spring break.

It documents the latest decade of his explorations of the Baja peninsula and the Sea of Cortez, while reflecting his experiences with a condor restoration project in the Sierra San Pedro Martir, and an altogether different teaching experience based in a field station on Bahia de los Angeles.

While the author’s intent is to evoke Baja ecologies in fresh ways, the reader comes to realize that he’s also describing how education can become a transformational experience. A retired scuba instructor who turned to academics and went on to receive his college’s highest teaching award, Dr. Farnsworth believes that education should be a lifelong adventure, and that explorations of the natural world should be animated by reverence and delight.

I want to be in his writing class! Highly recommended!

Pub Date 15 Nov 2018

Thanks to Cornell University Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#CovesOfDeparture #NetGalley

This is a very readable account of taking students out for a field trip to spot nature, add to their life lists and do some science. The Sea of Cortez is the main location with a particular group poised to run into bad kayaking weather. Their professor, a former dive trainer, is not only responsible for the students but for his own notes and training up his teaching assistant. The local kayaking operators know far more about the sea than anyone, including that poachers are stealing all the sea cucumbers. Eels feature largely. And seals, dolphins, crabs....

We also see the Californian mountains which are home to the revived population of Condors, and spend days with the good professor learning about their care and feeding, their soaring and competition from other raptors and vultures. This includes a hawk circling with a crowd of turkey vultures, separating and swooping on a creature that knew turkey vultures weren't a threat.

Anyone studying biology, ecology, various environments and the work required of scientists, will not only enjoy this read but be filled with hope and cheer. Keep up the good work.
I would have loved photos but my ARC had none. Bibliography P205 - 208. I counted seven names that I could be sure were female.

Sometimes, reading a book can be the adventure you would like to go, if not for money or time or many other reasons.

Coves of Departure, by John Seibert Farnsworth, is more along the lines of the adventure that sounds cool, but hopefully wouldn't be popular. Kayaking off the coast of Baja California to study delicate ecosystems. Travelling into the desert to observe buzzards. Things that sound intriguing, but it would be better for the environment that the average person didn't do it. For that matter, I probably wouldn't be able to handle the physical side of things.

Still, reading this book let me experience things second-hand, since Farnsworth definitely paints a vivid picture for the reader. I found myself sinking into the book, slowing down, as if I was reading it in a summer heat-wave instead of a cold winter. It also slowed me further as I took side-trips into the internet to look up the wildlife he describes

Very much recommended to anyone who loves reading about the environment. I look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this