This book focuses on the intertidal zone and how human’s have related with it. It presents a historical view; covering both teh human / political dimension and the human dimension.
‘The sea is not made of water. Creatures are its genes. Look down as you crouch over the shallwos and you will find a periwinkle or a prawn, a claw-displaing crab or a cluster of anemones ready to meet you. No need for binoculars or special stalking skills: go to the rocks and the living will say hello. The book is about those multiple layers between the tides, the ways in which the simple overlies the less-than-simple there, the extraordinary mirroring of human and animal life on its shores, in pools that are slient and beutiful adn as full of threat as any rat’s ally or Roman circus. The intertidal is rich but troubled; as no coincidence, it is one of the most revelatory habits on earth. (Pg. 2)
The chapers of the book are split into a number of catergories:
Part 1: Animals
- Sandhopper
- Prawn
- Winkle
- Crab
- Anemone
- Heraclitus on the shore
Part 2: Planetary Connections
- Tide
- Rock
Part 3: People
- Sacrifice
- Survival
- Belief
- Three Steps to the Modern
Taken from a chapter on sandhoppers:
‘Scientists at the Unviersity of Plymouth have found that if a normal plostic shopping bag is exposed to sandhoper shreadding, it will be turned into about 1.75 million pieces of microplastic, the tiny toxic fragments that easily spread across the sea and which poison and pollute all forms of life from plankton to whales. That is one reason to puck up the mess: it is not beach- but sea-cleaning. (pg 33).
Overall a clear overview on the intertidal zone.
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