The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival

First of all, you need to know that I am a sucker for just about anything having to do with the sea in general, and of Monterey Bay in particular. With that said, this is not the first tale of changing tides and broadscale changes in Earth's history, e.g.,  The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics) , The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany , but this tale is different. This is a tale of the history of the decline and recovery of one of the world's premier places of natural beauty and biological diversity. And, Palumbi (The Director of Hopkins Marine Station) and Sotka manage it in less than 200 pages! By comparison, I read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and it took about a year of chipping away at that tome to get through it. This tale, however, was one I was able to polish off in less than a week.Palumbi and Sotka have done a masterful job of telling the story of the Monterey Bay's unnatural history...that is, its interactions with humans. They start by telling of early French voyages to the Bay during the age of Spanish control of California, of the vast diversity of sealife there, including all manner of marine mammals, fishes, kelp, and etc. While the Spanish looked landward, the French and those who followed them recognized the bounty of the sea in the Bay. Soon thereafter follows the sad tale of the commercial overexploitation of one marine species after another until the Bay's original ecosystem was hammered. First it was sea otters hunted for their pelts (if you are interested in reading more about this you may want to try  Morning of Fire: John Kendrick's Daring American Odyssey in the Pacific ). Then came whalers who found abundant gray and humpback whales in the Bay. Then it was fish, especially sardines, and the boom of sardine canneries in Monterey in the early 1900s. If these kinds of accounts of over-exploitation are of interest to you, I recommend  The Unnatural History of the Sea . Anyway, the offal and waste from Monterey's cannery row eventually polluted the Bay, and ecologically Monterey Bay had hit close to rock bottom, literally, since even the giant kelp could no longer exist there. Then things started to change...the otters weren't extinct after all...and to hear about the rest you will have to read the book.I have spent a good deal of time in Monterey and Pacific Grove, and I know a bit about its history, especially the part connected to marine biology (Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck, Hopkins Marine Station, and the Monterey Bat Aquarium), but this book tells the tales of earlier times, and amazing people, like Julia Platt. She sounds amazing.Be advised that this book does not provide a comprehensive history of the towns of Monterey and Pacific Grove, CA, or of the natural history of the Bay. But, enough of both are included to provide the essntial framework needed to understand what happened to the Bay in the past, and what is happening there now. This story is, nevertheless, dear to me since I did my PhD field work at the Hopkins Marine Station when I was a student at UC Santa Cruz in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I, of course, also spent time at other locations around the Bay, including a LOT of time in Santa Cruz.What is the future of the Bay? Well, as of right now it actually looks brighter that its recent past. You will have to read the book to find out why.This is a solid telling, thanks Steve! I enjoyed it.4 solid stars.

The title suggests an environmental science study of ‘limited regional interest’. Thanks to the authors’ superb writing and obvious passion for their subject it’s far more than that: a story of strong personalities (including Pacific Grove mayor Julia Platt and marine biologist Ed Ricketts) working to overturn the damage of economic exploitation. A pleasure to read.

I've traveled to Monterey twice before for vacations and was planning a 3rd trip and wanted to find out more about this place I love so dearly. Reading this book before going made me appreciate the area even more than I already did. I highly recommend it to anyone planning on visiting Monterey Bay. It was great to see the areas talked about in the book first hand and to know the history behind what the bay has gone through to get to where it is today. Hopefully it can also be used as an eye opener in so many of today's environmental challenges.

Such a good book! I recommend it to people all the time. I work on a whale watching boat on the Monterey Bay and it's amazing how much information I learned from this book about the Bay. I have read it at least 4 times and will read it again soon.

I can't say enough good things about this book.

A passionate and carefully researched history that reads like an exciting story of a place that so many of us love. Especially appreciated learning more about key local people in the 20th and 21st centuries who devoted themselves to restoring the bay after many years of abuse.

I loved this book! It was easy and enjoyable to read, but was packed with tons of interesting information and insight into things I would never have imagined (Steinbeck's inspiration for Cannery Row comes to mind).I picked this up because of an interest in trophic cascades, and was pleasantly surprised that, although informative, it didn't read like a text book.

I was required to read this book for a class at my university, and I actually enjoyed it! It's a short and easy read. Great for the beach! If you are interested in the history of the Monterey Bay Area or California history in general I highly recommend if.