2022 NAUTILUS SILVER WINNER FOR LYRIC PROSE—In The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes, Lynne Heasley illuminates an underwater world that, despite a ferocious industrial history, remains wondrous and worthy of care. From its first scene in a benighted Great Lakes river, where lake sturgeon thrash and spawn, this powerful book takes readers on journeys through the Great Lakes, alongside fish and fishers, scuba divers and scientists, toxic pollutants and threatened communities, oil pipelines and invasive species, Indigenous peoples and federal agencies. With dazzling illustrations from Glenn Wolff, the book helps us know the Great Lakes in new ways and grapple with the legacies and alternative futures that come from their abundance of natural wealth. Suffused with curiosity, empathy, and wit, The Accidental Reef will not fail to astonish and inspire.
ContentsForeword, by Jerry DennisPrefacePart I. Freshwater Reef: A World Below and BeyondAt the ReefUnderwater RashomonFeast and FamineOn Naming and KnowingPart II. On Seeing and Knowing: An Underwater BiographyBad DiverWaters That BindAn Interview about SeeingRiver PeoplePower in the VisualA Not-So-Objective Introduction to the Fish Consumption AdvisoryRooted in SustainabilityA Dazzling DiscoveryCurrents(Seeing + Knowing) × Time = Hope?Part III. The Paradox of Abundance: Or, Problems of ScaleNegotiating Abundance and Scarcity, with Daniel MacfarlaneWater, Oil, and Fish, with Daniel MacfarlaneSalt Mines and Iron Ranges (An Extraction Index)The Paradox of AbundanceThe Accidental ReefAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex