David Helvarg - Saved by the Sea: Hope, Heartbreak, and Wonder in the Blue World

More praise for

In David Helvargs remarkable life as journalist and activist, he has participated in and reported on many of the major events of the last five decades, from the Vietnam War to Hurricane Katrina. Throughout his odyssey, Helvargs love of the sea has provided him both a cause to fight for and a cure for his ills. In Saved by the Sea, the reader will discover why he cares, and why he continues to fight for the oceansand why we all need to.

Ted Danson, actor

[Helvarg] possesses a narrative skill that makes his story readable and an intrepid spirit that makes his story worth reading.

Jim Toomey, cartoonist of Shermans Lagoon

Writing is a kind of art. In telling of his life and love of the sea David Helvarg has created a narrative masterpiece. Read this book to learn about how this wild man has come to dedicate himself to our living ocean, but mostly read Saved by the Sea for the pure salty pleasure of it.

Wyland, marine life artist and conservationist

David Helvarg dives into our endangered-ocean crisis through the prism of his often endangered life. His memoir of the sea is full of compassion and concern.

Paul R. Ehrlich, president of Stanfords Center for Conservation Biology

In this important yet eminently readable book, David Helvarg skillfully weaves together three narrative strandsthe life in our oceans, his own colorful life, and the impact that politics, culture, and industry have had on both.

Roz Savage, ocean rower and author of Rowing the Atlantic

Ever since the publication of his wave-making book Blue Frontier in 2001, David Helvarg has become the premier chronicler of Americas complex relationship with our oceans and coasts, our last frontier.... In his new book, Saved by the Sea, Helvarg adds a new and moving dimension to his work by exploring his own personal relationships with the ocean and the three main women in his life: his mother, girlfriend, and sister.

Honolulu Weekly

Theres something special about writers who think deeply over decades about the ocean. In their memoirs, they seem to have globetrotting lives, unhampered by ordinary boundaries and borders.... Helvarg writes about how his lifes course has been fashioned by the sea. Inspired as a child by Jacques Cousteau (like so many children!) and Rachel Carson, Helvarg began as an investigative journalist. In his thirties he discovered diving, which deepened his interest in the sea. He became an ocean activist and an environmental journalist. Saved by the Sea tells the story of Helvargs increasingly refined focus on issues that threaten the sea.

Los Angeles Times

This is a heartfelt tribute to the seas power and importance in our lives in addition to being a very human story that will resonate in the heart of every reader.

Tucson Citizen

There are many books available that delve into the complexities of the oceans or detail the many facts and figures to document the threats faced by the oceans and the marine life within. But there are few that make a personal one-to-one connection.... Saved by the Sea is a fascinating look at a mans life and how the thread of the ocean is woven throughout.... Full of personal experiences that emphasize to the reader that mankind is connected to the sea, whether man knows it or not.

RTSea Blog

A compelling picture of how deep those connections to the sea can run.

EMagazine.com

His writings can be read as both a memoir and a plea, but most of all, as a loving tribute to the natural world.

Sierra magazine

Helvarg makes the case for effective conservation of our oceans while sharing his compelling personal story. Rhode Island and the rest of the nation rely on the health of our oceans, and we must act swiftly to protect them.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island

ALSO BY DAVID HELVARG

The Golden Shore: Californias Love Affair with the Sea

Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, Americas Forgotten Heroes

Blue Frontier: Dispatches from Americas Ocean Wilderness

50 Ways to Save the Ocean

The War Against the Greens: The Wise-Use Movement, the New Right, and the Browning of America

Copyright 2010, 2015 by David Helvarg

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Kathryn Parise

Photos are courtesy of the authors collection except , courtesy of John Hoagland

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Helvarg, David, date.

Saved by the sea : hope, heartbreak, and wonder in the blue world / David Helvarg. [First trade paperback edition].

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-60868-328-4 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-60868-329-1 (ebook) 1. Helvarg, David, date. 2. ConservationistsUnited StatesBiography. 3. JournalistsUnited StatesBiography. 4. Fisheries. 5. Marine resources conservation. 6. Marine biology. I. Title.

QH91.3.H45A3 2015

333.95'16092dc23

[B]

2014045138

First paperback printing, April 2015

ISBN 978-1-60868-328-4

Originally published in hardcover by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martins Press, May 2010 (ISBN 978-0-312-56706-4)

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the Seaweed Rebels

Contents

Whatever attention this book may gain, and whatever favor it may find, I shall owe almost entirely to that interest in the sea, and those who follow it, which is so easily excited in us all.

Richard Henry Dana Jr.,

Two Years Before the Mast, 1840

Into the Blue

The reason why I love the sea I cannot explain. Its physical. When you dive, you begin to feel like youre an angel.

JACQUES COUSTEAU

Im free-falling past a rocky wall, gradually accelerating into the cooler, darker waters of Belizes Blue Hole when a large cavern appears below and the dive master, whos been fast drifting into the depths, stops and puts a vertical hand atop his headthe signal for shark. Though I look around and fail to see one, I know theyre here. Id just spotted a couple of fins while bobbing on the surface. I hold up at 150 feet and enter the cavern swimming around huge column-thick stalactites in what was once part of a massive cave complex before the roof fell in thousands of years ago. After eight minutes of exploring this underwater Howe Caverns, and undoing the chest strap on my buoyancy control vest so that my friend Scott can get a shot of me in my SEAWEED REBEL T-shirt, its time to return to the surface. This is why they call it a bounce dive. At this depth we dont have much time before the nitrogen building up in our tissues threatens us with the bends. But if we keep our bottom time short, we wont have to do a long decompression stop on the way back up.