MY RATING:
Synopsis:
Award-winning broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough and longtime collaborator Colin Butfield present a powerful call to action focused on our planet’s oceans, exploring how critical this habitat is for the survival of humanity and the future of Earth.
Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet –
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and the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate and creates the air we breathe. The book showcase the oceans’ remarkable resilience: they are the part of our world that can, and in some cases has, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance.
Drawing a course across David Attenborough’s own lifetime, Ocean takes readers on an adventure-laden voyage through eight unique ocean habitats, through countless intriguing species, and through the most astounding discoveries of the last 100 years, to a future vision of a fully restored marine world, even richer and more spectacular than we could possibly hope. Ocean reveals the past, present and potential future of our blue planet. It is a book almost a century in the making, but one that has never been more urgently needed.
- Pages: 400
- Genre: Nonfiction, Nature
- Publication date: First published April 24, 2025
- Format: Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
- Source: Owned
PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON
KOBO
REVIEW:
Ah, the ocean! I have always been afraid of water, be it a lake, a river, or the sea, let alone the vast and mysterious ocean. Therefore, I am very cautious when it comes to the content I consume on this topic because I can’t even watch without being scared of the depths and the dark. All these premises to tell you that despite all this, I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and have learned so much on so many levels (although my thalassophobia is still there!)
Before I get to my actual review, I would like to express my belated congratulations to Sir David Attenborough for his 100th birthday!
This was a beautifully written plea to all humans to wake up and take action before it is too late to change the direction we are headed towards. My eyes were watery at some passages, other times, I was baffled and outraged by how inconsiderate, egotistical and vile we people can be.
I will always remember this saying: “We produce more than we can actually consume.” It is a powerful statement with many implications. The fishing industry faces a similar problem, we often catch fish at a rate faster than they can reproduce. As a result, fish populations decline, marine ecosystems are disrupted, and some species are pushed toward extinction. Certain fishing practices can also damage the habitats on which marine life depends.
The book is divided into parts such as coral reefs, the Arctic, the deep ocean, kelp forests, and mangroves, which are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Reading about each section felt like watching a documentary, which I did not know, but found out after I finished the book that this is actually a companion book to the documentary. (I might try to watch it one day if I muster the courage to.)
One can learn so much from reading this book! I really appreciate that there is a section for further reading at the end of the book, and so many photographs. Luckily, I did listen to the audiobook whilst I was reading my e-copy, and it was such an amazing experience.
Please read this book!
“We get used to a degraded environment, and as a result, too often we don’t even aspire to recover what we once had.”
“We now finally understand all we need to know to restore our ocean, we have the knowledge, but more importantly, we have the proof, we have real-world evidence…”
“We have changed the ocean so profoundly that the next hundred years could either witness a mass extinction of ocean life or a spectacular recovery. I will not see how that story ends, but, after a lifetime of exploring our planet, I remain convinced that the more people enjoy and understand the natural world, the greater our hope of saving both it and ourselves becomes.”
Let me know if you have read the book or watched the documentary!
Lin's Perspective 
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