A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' Fragile Legacy in an Ocean at Risk

by Drew Harvell, Harry W. Greene (Foreword by)

Overview

"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation."—Library Journal

"Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas."—The Guardian 
Winner of the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award, Environment Category

It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell’s eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their likenesses into glass, documenting the life of oceans untouched by climate change and human impacts. Inspired by the Blaschkas’ uncanny replicas, Harvell set out in search of their living counterparts. In A Sea of Glass, she recounts this journey of a lifetime, taking readers along as she dives beneath the ocean's surface to a rarely seen world, revealing the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the living matches for the Blaschkas’ creations are, indeed, as fragile as glass.

Drew Harvell and the Blaschka menagerie are the subjects of the documentary Fragile Legacy, which won the Best Short Film award at the 2015 Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Learn more about the film and check out the trailer here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520303577
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Series:	Organisms and Environments , #13
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	1,171,924
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Drew Harvell is Professor of Ecology at Cornell University, Curator of the Blaschka Glass Marine Invertebrate Collection, and author of Ocean Outbreak: Confronting the Rising Tide of Marine Disease.

Table of Contents

Foreword Harry W. Greene ix

1 Introduction: The Quest for the Living Blaschka Animals 1

2 Anemones and Corals: Rooted Lives of At-Risk Animals 19

3 Jellyfish: The Rise of the Medusa 43

4 Worms: Ecosystem Engineers Undercover 69

5 Sea Slugs: Fire Stealers of the Deep 89

6 Octopus and Squid: Shape-Shifters under Pressure 113

7 Sea Stars: Keystone Species in Glass 137

8 The Voyage of Our Blaschka Biodiversity 153

Acknowledgments 167

Appendix: A Primer on the Blaschka Tree of Life 171

References 191

List of Illustrations 199

Index 203

Editorial Reviews

"A wonderful example of the intertwining of science and art where each expression of the wonders of the human mind sparks another."

The Explorers Journal

"You will want this book and then you will want to give it to one and all for a delightful and stimulating introduction to our wonderful ocean creatures."

The Quarterly Review of Biology

"Curator and marine ecologist Harvell recounts her quest to find the living versions of the creatures and the scientific insights the 150-year-old glass replicas still provide." - The Best "Art Meets Science" Books of 2016

 

Smithsonian.com

"Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas."

The Guardian

"Stunning photos . . . contextualize the dramatic taxonomic and ecological shifts in ocean life over the past 150 years."

Nature

"Both the Blaschka collection and Harvell's work certainly stand the test of time as a testimony to the beauty and magnificence of the oceans' majesty and wonder."

CHOICE

"Harvell’s encounters with rarer creatures of the deep are as exciting for the reader as they were for her, but the takeaway from A Sea of Glass is an SOS call for a change in human behavior."

Hakai Magazine

"Beautifully written, multifaceted book . . . opens the doors of marine ecology to new audiences at a critical time."

Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine

"Stunning photos . . . contextualize the dramatic taxonomic and ecological shifts in ocean life over the past 150 years."

Nature Lib

"An engrossing story: the rediscovery of Cornell’s treasury of Blaschka models, the restoration of its damaged contents, her recognition of their potential as a ‘baseline’ for diversity and her years searching for their living counterparts in today’s oceans."

Ocean Challenge

05/15/2016
Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka were a remarkable father-and-son team of naturalist glassblowers working in 19th-century Germany. They created hundreds of glass marine invertebrates commissioned by universities in Europe and the United States for use as teaching collections. Working from illustrations in books as well as live specimens housed in their own aquaria, they received regular shipments of living sea animals from Trieste, Italy; Kiel, Germany; and Weymouth, England. Harvell (biology, Cornell) embarked on diving expeditions to survey the oceans off Friday Harbor, WA; Liguria, Italy; and other sites to compare the numbers and diversity of living populations with those of 160 years ago. Readers are introduced to the anatomy, physiology, and ecological relationships of such animals as anemones, corals, jellyfish, octopuses, tubeworms, and sea slugs. Unfortunately, Harvell discovered, the increasing acidity of the oceans owing to high levels of carbon dioxide, overfishing and pollution has greatly reduced the numbers and types of animals living today. The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation. VERDICT General readers, as well as those who enjoyed J.E.N. Veron's A Reef in Time: The Great Barrier Reef from Beginning to End and Richard Ellis's The Empty Ocean, will appreciate this volume.—Judith B. Barnett, Univ. of Rhode Island Lib., Kingston

Library Journal