Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean

In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. 

In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture—the very old and very new. 

Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.

Jonathan White is an active marine conservationist, a sailor, and a surfer. His first book, Talking on the Water: Conversations about Nature and Creativity, is a collection of interviews exploring our relationship with nature and features Gretel Ehrlich, David Brower, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gary Snyder, Peter Matthiessen, and others. White has written for the Christian Science Monitor, The Sun, Orion, Surfer’s Journal, and other publications. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction and lives with his wife and son on a small island in Washington State.

Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, and CIA agent. A co-founder of the Paris Review, he was a 2008 National Book Award winner. He was also an environmental activist. His nonfiction, notably The Snow Leopard, featured nature and travel, as well as American Indian issues and history, including his study of the Leonard Peltier case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. His early story story "Travelin' Man" was made into the film The Young One directed by Luis Buñuel, and his novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord was made into a 1991 film. He lived in Sagaponak, New York.