World Oceans Day 2021

For World Oceans Day 2021, The Nature Library has compiled a selection of books, poetry and podcasts which focus on the ocean.

Thank you to members of the Our Seas coalition and the Sea Library who helped to compile this list by sharing some of their own favourite books about the sea.

Non-fiction

The Outermost House, Henry Beston
biography / memoir / Cape Cod

Sea Trilogy (The Edge of the Sea / The Sea Around Us / Under the Sea Wind), Rachel Carson
sea creatures / conservation / poetic scientific

The Wave, Susan Casey
waves / surfing / science / adventure

Lady with a Spear, Eugenie Clark
autobiography / ichthyology (fish science) / travel

Swimming to Antarctica, Lynne Cox
swimming / sport / biography

North Atlantic Seafood, Alan Davidson
fish and crustaceans / recipes / cultural anecdotes /

Island of the Lost, Joan Druett
historical / survival / Auckland Island

Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans, Sylvia Earle
ocean life / conservation / memoir

Coral Empire: Underwater Oceans, Colonial Tropics, Visual Modernity, Ann Elias
art / postcolonial / coral reefs

My Old Man and the Sea, David Hays
sailing / family / travel

The Leviathan, Philip Hoare
whales / historical and emotional / very much so but not exclusively Moby Dick

Sightlines, Kathleen Jamie
looking / from whales to microscopic / people and the sea

Whale Fall, Rebecca Giggs
essay / whales / death

The Frayed Atlantic Edge, David Gange
the ocean from Orkney to Cornwall / historical rewrite / kayaking

The Outrun, Amy Liptrot
memoir / home / recovery

The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky, Ellen Meloy
colour / travel / history

Endeavour: The Ship and the Attitude That Changed the World, Peter Moore
historical / boats / biography

The Seabird’s Cry, Adam Nicholson
seabird behaviour / conservation / scientific-creative-poetic-non-fiction

Observer’s Guide to Sea and Seashore
beautiful sea guide / will answer most questions

At the Water’s Edge, Louisa Adjoa Parker
essay / coastal memories / growing by the sea

Small Bodies of Water, Nina Mingya Powles
belonging / lyrical essays / separation by oceans

Ocean of Life: How our Seas are Changing, Callum Roberts
fishing / overfishing / humankind and the sea

The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of Our Ocean and How We Can Protect Them, Alex Rogers
deep sea wonders / science / conservation

The Brilliant Abyss, Helen Scales
fish / marine biology / our lives with fish

Spirals in Time, Helen Scales
shells / history and lore of / marine biology

The Log from the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck
”Good early marine biology.” — OurSeas.scot

Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga, Laura Watts
marine energy / decentralisation / scientific storytelling

Fiction

We Were the Salt of the Sea, Roxanne Bouchard

The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy

The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh

Inch Levels, Neil Hegarty

Nine Florida Stories, Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Sea Prayer, Khaled Hosseini

The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

The Island of Sea Women, Lisa See

To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

The Waves, Virginia Woolf

 

The Limit

‘The Limit’ is a campaign film from Our Seas about restoring the threatened connections between people and the life in our sea. It explores the impacts of drastic declines in Scotland’s fish populations and the hidden damage to our seabed.

How can we bring about an urgent and fair transition towards more sustainable fishing?

To support Scotland’s coastal seas from destructive dredging and trawling, sign Our Seas’ #InshoreLimit petition here.

Suzannah V Evans

Marine Objects / Some Language

Suzannah V Evans reads from her debut double-pamphlet Marine Objects / Some Language published by Guillemot Press.

that’s all I had, a tiny moment, a tiny briny moment
to latch and suck and slickly stick

when I saw it, when I saw it heavy and stuck in the sand
one handle lifted as if to say, take me, hand

— Suzannah V Evans, ‘voiced by a barnacle’

 
 

Sylvia Earle: Protect Our Oceans

“Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean — and shocking stats about its rapid decline — as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet. Sylvia Earle has been at the frontier of deep ocean exploration for four decades. She's led more than 50 undersea expeditions, and she's been an equally tireless advocate for our oceans and the creatures who live in them.”

(Just some) Books by Sylvia Earle:

Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans

The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One

Dive! My Adventures in the Deep Frontier

Jump Into Science: Coral Reefs

Watch:
Mission Blue (Netflix)

Throw Away Culture

Mini-doc on ocean plastics with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Directed by Nikki Dodd and Rory Moon

“Plastic is all around us. From packaging for our food to synthetic fabric for our clothes, plastic has become an inescapable reality. A significant portion of this plastic winds up in the ocean, where it not only threatens marine life, but human health too. When did we become so addicted to plastic? And what can we do to break our addiction?”

 

Podcasts and Radio

 

Ologies: Teuthology (SQUIDS)

“Squids. Cuttlefish. Octopusseseses. The world's most impassioned squid nerd, Sarah McAnulty, gets locked in a basement with Alie to talk about cephalopods, alien DNA, camouflage, invisibility cloaks, why cute things make us insane, terrible mating strategies, cute and clever ones and why she is so charmed by squid. Also addressed: Philly accents and the Kraken.”

The Infinite Monkey Cage: The Oceans - What Remains to be Discovered?

“Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Andy Hamilton, Professor Jon Copley and marine biologist Helen Scales, as they look at the riches still remaining to be discovered deep within our oceans … Even the humble limpet is providing inspiration to material scientists and engineers: the limpets' teeth, it turns out, are made from the strongest natural substance on the planet.”

The Tidal Sense

“What does the tide mean, and could it be trying to tell us something? Multimedia artist Signe Lidén reflects on both ancient and emerging knowledge across disciplines and cultures that understands the tide as more than just a mechanical phenomenon.

With contributions from biologist and writer Arjen Mulder, neurobiologist Michael Hastings, Shetland poet Roseanne Watt, historian and kayaker David Gange, and Grace Dillon, a member of the Anishinaabe and professor in indigenous nations studies.”