Reefscape: Reflections on the Great Barrier Reef

Located off Australia's eastern coast, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the natural world. The diversity of life is simply incredible. It is also the ideal environment for coral, making it a diver's paradise. Indeed, some 200 million tourists visit the reef each year. Looking beyond the sheer beauty of this place, we learn, too, that it is a region rich in history, the setting for fateful shipwrecks and exotic Aboriginal myths. Australian writer Rosaleen Love explores the reef from all these angles, allowing us to see this stunning geography anew.

Part travelogue, part eco-history, Reefscape represents multiple views of the reef - through the eyes of mariners, pearl divers, naturalists, filmmakers, pirates, industrialists, and tourists alike- painting a fascinating portrait of a unique locale.

Told in a reflectively poetic voice, Love writes evocatively of the ecological, and geological significance of the reef. Woven throughout is the intriguing history of the area. This twofold approach provides a rich perspective on the reef an ecosystem as well as a natural resource for its inhabitants. By recounting both tales, Reefscape provides a window on the past and foreshadows the future of this extraordinary environment.

Reefscape will illuminate the meaning of the human encounter with nature. It will inspire delight in the imagination and spirit of all who yearn for the transcendence of turquoise waters.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been studied before, but Love aims to explore its meaning as it is experienced by past, present, and future groups: mariners, fishermen, and pearl shellers, Aborigines, scientists, and tourists. The author of two collections of speculative fiction and editor of an anthology of Australian science writing, Love balances her historical views with personal perspective. Watching birds, she muses about the damage we do in spite of our awareness and care, and she counterposes beautiful descriptions of fauna with amounts, costs, and dates of the damage done. She strives to define her own relationship to the reef and is at her best when she matches her scholarship with her experiences, as in the chapter "Diving for Oldies," about the history of scuba diving and learning the sport at the age of 58. Reefscape provides a list of books for further reading and web sites of interest. Recommended for all libraries. Elizabeth C. Stewart, Portland, ME
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