I wanted to read this one, but I am unable to download the book because it is unfortunately archived.

After reading other reviews, I may not immediately rush out to find more books by this author right away, but by itself this was a really good book, accessible enough for the general reader while not dumbing down the science. Reading the arc version I have no idea what photos, diagrams and other imagery will be included, so I hope there are lots of images in the finished version, because while I spend many hours watching deep-sea dive footage most readers do not know what all the critters and ecosystems look like that the book describes. I especially liked that in each chapter we don't just get the depressing litany of all that is going wrong, but also things that are looking hopeful or projects that offer a possible and very real step towards a more sustainable and healthy future.

Climate change is a timely subject, and I’m always open to nature science nonfiction that discuses it in detail—and doubly so because it was from the author, Helen Scales, who wrote The Brilliant Abyss (one of my favorite books from the year it was released). But while the changes to the sea, how it will affect animals and people alike, is a very important matter to learn about, I ultimately DNFed What the Wild Sea Can Be. I kept setting it aside and was never able to be as interested in the way the information was being imparted as I assumed I would, based on my reading experience with Scales’ other book. I still think this is an important book that other people will enjoy. So I encourage readers to check out other reviews and form their own opinion.

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

In What the Wild Sea Can Be, Helen Scales shares a comprehensive look at the challenges facing the ocean today, from climate change, to pollution and overfishing. This exploration is starkly honest about the damage humans have already done (and are still doing) to marine life and habitats. And yet, all along the way, Scales offers glimmers of hope, with examples of successful cleanup efforts, species revitalization efforts, and growing resistance to practices that treat the ocean as a resource to be extracted and exploited. What the Wild Sea Can Be emphasizes repeatedly that it’s not too late to make difficult but doable changes, thereby shaping a better future for the oceans that sustain us all.

This is such a remarkable and hopeful book—a Silent Spring for our 21st century time. Helen Scales’s passion for her subject comes through on every page. One minute, I’d be nerding out with her as she detailed the wonders of sea life. The next, I’d be nodding along as she explained how cutting subsidies to the fossil fuel industry could help slash carbon emissions. There’s an unexpected social-justice theme to the book, too. At different moments, Scales laments that the people who have done the least to contribute to pollution and climate change will be the ones to suffer most from rising sea levels and an ocean that can no longer support life as it once did.

I was especially struck by one of the book’s closing thoughts: “Living together on this blue planet, we are all ocean people.” The sense of unity and a shared future is the guiding spirit of What the Wild Sea Can Be.

Another entertaining read from Helen Scales on life in the sea. I recently read one of her other books, so this was maybe a little too soon after the previous one. There was quite some overlap between this book and the deep sea book, and also within the book there is some repetition between chapters. But it's not a big deal to me, the author is a good writer and the ocean-related stories are amazing either way. This book focuses a lot on ocean conservation stories for different kinds of organisms. A nice read for ocean enthusiasts and scientists.

What the Wild Sea Can Be is a really delightful book to read which can be a bit surprising considering how the matter of climate change makes many of us feel (disempowered, overwhelmed, like we're facing an insurmountable obstacle). Though this book discusses the ways in which a number of species and ocean habitats have been impacted by human activity (be it the overall effects of climate change itself, overfishing, loss of sea ice), it gives us glimpses of hope not only with the ways that some species have seemed to adapt to the changes, but even moreso with the ways in which people have noticed our impacts on the planet and worked to mitigate their worst effects. These glimpses empowered me to feel as though I could be an instrument in change and that this change is both possible and has tangible impacts on the species and habitats we hope to protect. The book was filled with wonderiment about the many species in the ocean which I really enjoyed, and I learned so much about many species of which I knew very little. My biggest gripes come from two sections of the book. In one, when the author is discussing methods of coral reef restoration, she dreams up an odd scenario where tiny robots would be able to help us scale up these efforts. However, it seemed very out-of-place in a book about climate change, which in order to combat we would need to scale down production of items massively not the least of which would be technology as they require massive amounts of rare metals and minerals that harm the environment and those people who mine them. This felt especially odd considering the critiques the author has of deep sea mining, an industry which is trying to mine metals and minerals for the production of technology. The other section which I did not enjoy was when the author discussed women-owed aquaculture enterprises in Maine and utilized quotes which play into the women as Madonna trope in which women are seen as naturally more nurturing, loving, empathetic than men and as their natural "good" foil. This was wholly unnecessary for the book as there are ways to discuss the important and interesting work these women are doing without attributing it to the inherent nature of their sex instead of a conscious effort to undo harm wrought by the whole of (primarily Western) society (men and women included). I wish the author would have instead focused on how they came to this work and what inspired them instead of their sex. Nevertheless, I found this book a fun and fast read that, while giving me some climate dread, also instilled climate hope.

An educational and informative read, there was a bit of repetition of information in the chapter about deep sea mining from one of her previous books but still a great read.