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The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific | 
 enlarge | Author: Julia Whitty
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.49
You Save: $7.46 (50%)
New (28) Used (12) from $5.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 337813
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 054705372X
Dewey Decimal Number: 577
EAN: 9780547053721
ASIN: 054705372X
Publication Date: June 13, 2008
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Product Description
In The Fragile Edge, the documentary filmmaker and deep-sea diver Julia Whitty paints a mesmerizing, scientifically rich portrait of teeming coral reefs and sea life in the South Pacific. She takes us literally beneath the surface of the usual travel narrative, in an underwater equivalent of an African big-game safari. Hammerhead sharks rule a cascading chain of extraordinary creatures, from eagle rays to reef sharks, as the sound of courting humpback whales reverberates through the deep. Inspiring for both armchair and expert divers, The Fragile Edge reveals how science can extend our understanding of unfathomable waters, opening our eyes to the threats facing coral reefs and explaining why these fragile oases are vital to human survival. In this passionate, spiritual narrative of her adventures in the big blue, Julia Whitty emerges as one of our finest writers on the mystery, beauty, and fragility of the undersea world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
The Fragile Edge December 29, 2007
The Fragile Edge by Julia Whitty combines a science journalist's capacity for a precise and illuminating description of undersea flora and fauna encountered in remoter parts of the Polynesian archipelago and a passionate appreciation for its peculiarities and ecological complexities with a philosopher's detachment and bird's eye view of the reefs and the communities that abut them. Your reviewer is a certified divemaster, licensed boat captain and underwater photographer and I read a lot of this stuff. This one is unique in its sensitivity, attention to detail, and the writer's personality that comes through. I've given two copies of the books to other divers in my family.
Joy and Sadness August 15, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I grew up in this world of tropical coral reefs and sharks and tiny bright fish but that was over fifty years ago. Tonight as I sat on the deck of my house overlooking a bay in Washington's temperate Puget Sound, I finished Julia's book and felt those long ago times flood back. And I felt joy and sadness. Joy for the memories of reef sharks suddenly appearing in the Northest pass of the Truk Lagoon; and me swimming free a hundred yards from our skiff. Joy for Moorish Idols escaping into coral forest. Joy for just being there. And sadness, for a world dying before our eyes. People, we've got too many people. When will we figure that out?
But oh my! Can this lady write. Thanks.
Swimming with the Swami June 13, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"All day we have been observing the surgeonfish..." Julia Whitty begins, and from that first sentence onward, the reader of "The Fragile Edge" is one of the party. Whitty is there with you, chuckling good-naturedly at the antics of an undersea creature or (more likely) of those crazy humans topside. In one of my favorite moments, an account of how the funky old hotel with its peculiar charms has been taken over by new owners whose pampered guests pay $500/night to lounge by the infinity pool is interrupted just at the moment when you think she might succumb to sentimentality or some other curmudgeonly temptation by her confession that, "I like the pool, too." Similarly, Whitty clearly and firmly presents her environmental concerns without, so to speak, wallowing in them. Instead of putting the book aside because you're tired of hearing about how the end of the world is at hand, you're motivated to keep swimming along with a guide whose curiosity and expertise extend to the natural history of molecular plants and animals, as well as the more glamorous sharks and dolphins, from Western science to Eastern metaphysics, and from dissolving atolls and bleached corals to the raw fish marinated in coconut milk served at a Tuvaluan wedding reception. Finally it's her love of the coral reefs she has come to know over many years of diving and study, rather than her fear that global warming will destroy them, that Whitty is most eager to share.
Wondrous, If Vicarious, Adventures In The Deep Thanks To Julia Whitty June 2, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What a treat to enter the underwater worlds of the South Pacific with documentary filmaker Julia Whitty as your guide! The writing is absolutely gorgeous: "The humphead wrasse who the Tahitians call mara and the French call Napoleon is an imposing fish up to seven feet long and four hundred and twenty pounds, with an overhanging forehead, thick lips, and a blue body overlaid with squiggly patterns of green and yellow that look like the inside of a crcuit board." It is easy enough to get lost in the descriptions of life in the reef, up close and personal, but Whitty doesn't stop there. She brings in philosophy, Darwin, yoga, the history of the people on the islands she decribes, and Buddhism, as she observes life in the reefs, so that the reader feels she is not merely observing what's before her but contemplating it, trying to understand its mysteries. She makes the more humorous sides of this underwater world come alive, all the while getting her message across of the dire straights the worlds coral reefs are currently in. She has a vast knowledge of fish and reef life but makes it accessable, even providing a glossary at the back for the layperson so you come away with new knowledge about worlds you might otherwise never know. I loved this book!!!
Edginess Long Overdue May 25, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Ten years ago I had the opportunity to snorkel with a marine biologist in East Africa. He was studying the bleaching of coral reefs and his worries about the future of marine life as he knew it was palpable. As a writer I had to ask myself, now that I know, what do I do? Thank you Julia Whitty for giving voice the growing awareness among scientists that the fragile balances life depends on are being pushed so sadly out of whack. The elegance of Whitty's prose and the beauty of her images do justice to the majesty of our lovely but put upon planet. She combines the dispassion of science with the passion of art in a way many writers aspire to but few accomplish to such good effect. Whitty gives us the facts with which to reason and the poetry to make us care deeply. This is a breakthrough book everyone should read.
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