CHRISTOPHER WHITE’s four books explore glacier loss worldwide and the natural history and wildlife of America’s largest estuary—the Chesapeake Bay.
While ocean fisheries were crashing around the world, Maine lobstermen recently claimed a bonanza. Just prior to 2017, annual lobster catches exceeded 120 million pounds, six times the level of the 1980s— a quantity unheard of in coastal fisheries. In response to the windfall, captains began fishing harder than ever, while younger captains bet on their future profits and bought bigger boats. Like poker players, they’re all in. Yet fisheries are notoriously fickle. So everyone is wondering: How long can the boom last? Can the Maine Coast, reliant as it is on the seafood industry, survive? In The Last Lobster, Christopher White explores the boom and what it might mean. Of the many possible reasons for the windfall, two stand out: a decline in predators and ocean warming—the marine version of climate change.
Like any crisis spiraling out of control, the story behind The Melting World has come to a tipping point: The once-vast glaciers of the American Rockies are melting, and the spin-offs are devastating. The epicenter of this calamity is Glacier National Park, which is experiencing nearly double the heat escalation of the world average temperature. Christopher White follows the country’s foremost glacier expert, Dan Fagre, and his team to uncover the full spectrum of impacts, ranging from bigger avalanches and forest fires to the endangerment of native species from lynx to cutthroat trout. In Montana, 125 glaciers have already vanished—80 percent of the legacy. Can we save the rest of the world’s ice? In a thoughtful epilogue, the author makes a case for why the rest of us should care about saving our rivers of ice.
A compelling portrait of a vanishing American tradition, as seen through the eyes of the characters-unforgettable men and women-who make their living from the decks of the skipjacks that harvest oysters from Chesapeake Bay. Called watermen, the captains of this sailing fleet are the last fishermen in North America to harness the wind. After 500 years, the Age of Sail has come down to eighteen boats in a pivotal year on two islands in the Bay. How many will make it through the season?
Photographs. 372 pages.
The definitive field guide to the Chesapeake Bay. The nine major habitat zones encountered along the Chesapeake-from freshwater wetlands and streams to tidewater marshes to the open Bay-are described and illustrated. Because the guide is organized by ecological community, each of which has its own unique set of plants and animals, field identification becomes much easier. To aid further in this process, the most important field marks of more than 500 species are shown in superb pen-an-ink drawings. Four introductory chapters provide the background for this fascinating ecosystem, explaining the workings of the Bay and its place as the most productive estuary in North America. Aquatic and wetland plants; invertebrates; freshwater, estuarine, and marine fishes; amphibians and reptiles; birds; mammals are all represented in this benchmark work.
Illustrations by Karen Teramura.
Glossary. Index. 212 pages.
A guide to the vanishing species of the Chesapeake watershed, which spans six states and the District of Columbia. An overview explores the major habitats of the region and the general threats to its diversity. Over fifty species accounts, ranging from the Virginia round-leaf birch to the Maryland darter to the peregrine falcon to the Delmarva fox squirrel to the Eastern cougar, tell the story of plants and animals on the brink of extinction. Color photographs, paintings, and species distribution maps accompany each entry.
Glossary. Index. 160 pages.
