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Saving the Last Coral Wilderness on Earth
The University of Chicago Press
January 2013
On Sale: January 1, 2013
184 pages
ISBN: 0226775607
EAN: 9780226775609
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
“It was the first time I’d seen what the ocean may have
looked like thousands of years ago.” That’s conservation
scientist Gregory S. Stone talking about his initial dive
among the corals and sea life surrounding the Phoenix
Islands in the South Pacific. Worldwide, the oceans are
suffering. Corals are dying off at an alarming rate, victims
of ocean warming and acidification—and their loss threatens
more than 25 percent of all fish species, who depend on the
food and shelter found in coral habitats. Yet in the waters
off the Phoenix Islands, the corals were healthy, the fish
populations pristine and abundant—and Stone and his
companion on the dive, coral expert David Obura, determined
that they were going to try their best to keep it that way. Underwater Eden tells the story of how they
succeeded, against great odds, in making that dream come
true, with the establishment in 2008 of the Phoenix Islands
Protected Area (PIPA). It’s a story of cutting-edge science,
fierce commitment, and innovative partnerships rooted in a
determination to find common ground among conservationists,
business interests, and governments—all backed up by
hard-headed economic
analysis. Creating the world’s
largest (and deepest) UNESCO World Heritage Site was by no
means easy or straightforward. Underwater Eden takes
us from the initial dive, through four major scientific
expeditions and planning meetings over the course of a
decade, to high-level negotiations with the government of
Kiribati—a small island nation dependent on the revenue from
the surrounding fisheries. How could the people of Kiribati,
and the fishing industry its waters supported, be
compensated for the substantial income they would be giving
up in favor of posterity? And how could this previously
little-known wilderness be transformed into one of the
highest-profile international conservation priorities? Step by step, conservation and its priorities won over the
doubters, and Underwater Eden is the stunningly
illustrated record of what was saved. Each chapter
reveals—with eye-popping photographs—a different aspect of
the science and conservation of the underwater and
terrestrial life found in and around the Phoenix Islands’
coral reefs. Written by scientists, politicians, and
journalists who have been involved in the conservation
efforts since the beginning, the chapters brim with
excitement, wonder, and confidence—tempered with realism and
full of lessons that the success of PIPA offers for other
ambitious conservation projects worldwide. Simultaneously a valentine to the diversity, resilience, and
importance of the oceans and a riveting account of how
conservation really can succeed against the toughest
obstacles, Underwater Eden is sure to enchant any
ocean lover, whether ecotourist or armchair scuba diver.
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