Seaweed Chronicles by Susan Hand Shetterly
TITLE: Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water's Edge
AUTHOR: Susan Hand Shetterly
DATE PUBLISHED: 2018
FORMAT: hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781616205744
__________________________________
Description:
"“Seaweed is ancient and basic, a testament to the tenacious beginnings of life on earth,” writes Susan Hand Shetterly in this elegant, fascinating book. “Why wouldn’t seaweeds be a protean life source for the lives that have evolved since?” On a planet facing environmental change and diminishing natural resources, seaweed is increasingly important as a source of food and as a fundamental part of our global ecosystem.
In Seaweed Chronicles, Shetterly takes readers deep into the world of this essential organism by providing an immersive, often poetic look at life on the rugged shores of her beloved Gulf of Maine, where the growth and harvesting of seaweed is becoming a major industry. While examining the life cycle of seaweed and its place in the environment, she tells the stories of the men and women who farm and harvest it—and who are fighting to protect this critical species against forces both natural and man-made. Ideal for readers of such books as The Hidden Life of Trees and How to Read Water, Seaweed Chronicles is a deeply informative look at a little understood and too often unappreciated part of our habitat."
______________________________________
Seaweed Chronicles explores the harvest of seaweed in the Gulf of Maine. This book is about relationships - relationships between the local people, large scale commerce, conservationists, seaweed, and all the species that depend on seaweed in one way or another. Shetterly provides us with the personal stories of individual people who work and live at the shore, about the local ecology, about the past, present and ultimately about the future. I found the book eloquently written, interesting and informative, but lacking in detail about the biology of seaweed as opposed to seaweed harvesting. Photographs and a locality map would also have been nice.
