Skin of the Sea

"Skin of the Sea ties into all sorts of mythologies, primarily the West African mythology of Mami Wata. This character is a legendary, powerful mermaid who appears in different incarnations and stories across the African diaspora. She’s a fascinating mix of different cultural influences, including European mermaid myths. Natasha Bowen brings Mami Wata into the very real and very dark stories of the people who lost their lives while they were being shipped into slavery in the Americas, and whose bodies were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean. Her book makes an important contribution to a growing body of work, including literature, visual art and music, that’s keeping alive the cultural connections to the deep seabed and the Atlantic Middle Passage, which is the final, hidden resting place for millions of people. I see this book as part of a virtual memorial that’s helping to keep these stories in people’s minds and not let them be forgotten. That’s what originally drew me to the book, and then reading it I loved being whisked away to this mythical version of the ocean. There are many living and real wonders in the ocean, but it’s always exciting to explore other possibilities of what could be going on there. There’s so much you can’t see in the ocean and people have always filled it with imaginary gods and monsters. Perhaps there really could be mermaids, we just haven’t quite found them yet. They’ve been swimming through people’s minds for so long, and I love that they continue to do so today. I think it’s wonderful that we have modern interpretations of age-old characters, and they still have tremendous relevance today. Yes, it is a fairy tale for teens. It’s a love story. And there is a darkness to this one, certainly, with the connection to the slave trade and what happened to so many people. This one is probably most suitable for 13-17 year olds. I gave up eating meat when I was a teenager, outraged about the Amazon rainforest being cut down to make way for cattle ranches. I kept on eating seafood for years but now I eat very little, and only if I can be sure it’s been sustainably and ethically caught. If I’m totally honest, the only reason I haven’t quite given up seafood entirely is because I can’t resist how delicious it is! It’s complicated. You can imagine that as a marine biologist who is outspoken about these issues, I’m an absolute bore at dinner parties. I will ask “What species is that? Where was it caught? And how was it caught?” Ultimately, you need to know all that to be sure about sustainability, but it can be a real minefield. Just saying North Sea cod, for instance, isn’t enough. You can get good advice from things like the Good Fish Guide , which is a website and a smartphone app, and breaks things down in terms of better and worse options. There is a similar one put out by Monterey Bay Aquarium called Seafood Watch which is for species generally available in North America. The Australian Marine Conservation Society has an equivalent called GoodFish . Some of the eco-labelling systems like the Marine Stewardship Council can show which are the better options, but they do have issues. Ultimately, if you eat seafood then it’s up to you to try and be thoughtful and find out more about what you eat and where it comes from. The oceans are critically important for climate change. For starters, they have absorbed around 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. If it wasn’t for all that water, covering seven-tenths of the earth, we’d be in an even more catastrophic situation than we are now. A huge amount of carbon also gets sequestered in the ocean, sinking into the deep and locked up in habitats like kelp forests, seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangrove forests. And just like forests and peatlands on land, those habitats are being damaged and destroyed at terrifying rates. For example, the UK has lost 44% of its seagrasses since the 1930s. People are now working hard to replant seagrasses and bring back this carbon-supping ecosystem. It will also be good news for all the species that live in seagrass. The more seagrass meadows there are, the more habitat there will be for amazing species like seahorses. Sign up here for our newsletter featuring the best children’s and young adult books, as recommended by authors, teachers, librarians and, of course, kids. At the same time that we’re understanding more about how the ocean plays a key role in mitigating climate change, human impacts in the ocean are also making the climate crisis worse. Fishing has various impacts on the climate. The fishing industry has an enormous fuel bill because of the types of vessels used to go and catch fish. In particular fishing in distant waters—and especially in deeper waters—is so fuel-intensive that most of those fisheries wouldn’t be economically viable if they weren’t getting fuel subsidies from governments. So, it doesn’t make any economic sense, let alone any environmental sense, to fish in those areas. And high seas fisheries aren’t feeding the world. Mostly they’re providing fish that goes to high-income nations. To make matters worse, a lot of the fish being targeted play a big role in the carbon cycle. They help draw carbon into the deep ocean, keeping it away from the atmosphere. So, people are disrupting those critical pathways, too, by overfishing. Absolutely, I’ve noticed a growing excitement lately surrounding the ocean. A lot of kids I meet tell me they want to be a marine biologist, which is fabulous. We need as many brilliant people as possible working in the ocean. But an important message I also want to get across is that you don’t have to be a marine biologist—the oceans are for everyone. They matter for us all. Spending time by, on and in the sea can benefit you whatever you do in life. So whether or not you feel like science or conservation is for you, the oceans are definitely for you. And the oceans need you. I want as many people as possible to know and care about what lives there, what the problems are and to fight for a better future for the oceans. I love stories about the sea because they bring many more people into the ocean realm. This is not an exclusive space for people who can scuba dive and who want to be under the water as much as above it. The ocean really is for everyone and stories like these show that there are many different ways to connect to the sea."