Helen Scales's Reading List

"I had the great honour of meeting her when she was in her late 80s. She is an absolute inspiration to me. Getting a chance to sit down and chat with her over lunch was a joy. She had been studying the ocean for 60 years and was still diving, still researching and still as much in love with the ocean as she ever was. I felt a huge connection with her. This book describes a time when she was a pioneering female scientist, going off and having adventures and following her extraordinary obsession with the ocean. She spent time in Egypt studying the fishes of the Red Sea, as a single female at a time when such things were completely unheard of. To some extent she is one of the female underwater explorers who isn’t quite so famous, and she really should be. She was American, grew up in New York and tells a lovely story of how she fell in love with fish at a young age when visiting the New York aquarium. She went on to become known as the “shark lady” for her studies of shark behaviour, and founded the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, now known as the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. Her second book, The Lady and the Sharks , describes how that was set up and how she raised her family at the same time in what was then a remote, undeveloped part of Florida. She actually spent most of her career up in Maryland, where she was a professor at the university. I only wish I could have been one of her students, it must have been so exciting to work with her. She spent her whole life teaching and researching. And she was still doing it in her late 80s because she loved it so much she couldn’t give it up. I would love to be like that. If I get to that age and I am still diving and exploring the oceans, it would be fabulous."

"I read this story years ago and it is just lovely. Winton calls it a fable for all ages and I think that is absolutely true. I read it to my nephews when they were about seven but I think everyone should read it no matter how old they are. It is about a boy called Abel Jackson who grows up in this gorgeous part of what I presume is the Western Australian coast, because that is where the author hails from. The story tells how Abel goes diving every day. He makes friends with a huge blue fish he names Blueback. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter It is part adventure story, part ode to the oceans. You see the unfolding problems of the modern world pushing in on his beloved bay. Abel decides that he wants to study the sea to figure it out and solve the puzzle of why the ocean is getting sick. And on a lighter note he wants to learn the language of the sea. He wants to know what Blueback is thinking about. It is beautifully written and very evocative. Ultimately, it is a story about childhood dreams and realising it is never too late to go back and relive them. Yes, one part of the story is that fishermen come and pillage the bay where Abel and his mother live. It describes the efforts they make to stop that happening, but I don’t want to spoil the ending. Sadly, I often turn up when it has already got to the point of being fairly degraded. I have spent a long time working and researching in South East Asia where there are all sorts of problems like dynamite and cyanide fishing, and the impacts are obvious. I have been in the water when a fish bomb has gone off not too far away – which is terrifying. You can almost feel it before you hear it. It was deafening. I was petrified that if it had come any closer my buddy and I would have been deafened if not worse. It rocks through your insides and you feel this powerful pressure wave coming off the bomb. It is that pressure wave that kills the fish. It really brought home to me just how destructive that kind of fishing is. We came up immediately and the boat was miles away, but sound travels through the sea so fast. So I have seen some sad cases of ocean destruction, but I have also been very lucky to go to some of the most beautiful and relatively untouched places there are left."

"This book goes through the sequence of events that led us to today’s depleted ocean. It takes you back to a time when people believed the oceans were essentially inexhaustible. Yes, back as far as whale hunting and all sorts of different ways of exploiting the ocean. And it tells the story in a very vivid way. Everyone will learn something from this, even if they think they know lots of stuff about how we have affected the oceans. There are many things in there that I wasn’t aware of. And he reminds us that we easily forget about how things have changed. Even in recent times, we have come to accept a degraded state of the natural world and the oceans. We quickly forget just how abundant life used to be and how rich fisheries used to be. I should point out that he does take an optimistic outlook. He isn’t all doom and gloom. He lays out hundreds and hundreds of years of over-exploitation but he also lays out his manifesto for restoring some of that former glory. He doesn’t think it’s too late. It is all about setting up marine protected areas or marine reserves, and reinventing the way that we manage fisheries. He knows what he is talking about. This guy is a top academic in fisheries and marine conservation. That is the big question. The science is there. It is the people side of the equation that still has a big question mark hanging over it. I can only hope that books like this can help chip away at that. We have to remember that the things that live in the ocean are wildlife. They aren’t just resources for us to use up. We have a lot more respect for wildlife on land and see it as something we need to look after. There is a very different attitude towards the oceans. We see them as a place to dump our waste and grab as much food from as possible. It is vital that we try and get the message across that these are wild creatures and ecosystems that we are damaging, and that losing them will affect our lives in practical and economic ways as well as more intangible ways. The oceans fuel our imaginations. I think it’s crucial for there to still be wild sea monsters out there. Werner Herzog said, “What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the deep? It would be like sleep without dreams.”"

"Greenberg brings Roberts’s story bang up to date. He answers questions about what we eat today and how that is affecting the ocean. He picks four fish, which in the western world at least are the main species we eat. Those are tuna, salmon, cod and sea bass. It is a fascinating story about how we got hooked on those four species, which he tells from his perspective as an avid angler. Some of the most interesting parts of Greenberg’s book concern the future of fishing and particularly fish farming. He writes about a couple of companies that are taking a truly rational approach to large-scale fish farming and asking the question, will it feed the masses? Greenberg encourages us to think about farming fish in the same way that farmers think about raising animals on land. He thinks that if we pick species that get on well in captivity then absolutely we can. But fishers and fish farmers need to rethink what they’re currently doing, and as consumers we need to be persuaded to give up our rather boring palette. We only really eat four types of fish but there is so much more that we could be eating that has a lighter impact on the natural world."

"This graphic novel is a beautiful re-telling of Coleridge’s poem for our modern plastic-filled times. It carries a really chilling message about our consumer-driven lives and its consequences on our planet and the ocean in particular. The book is also an object of great loveliness with stunning illustrations. In and of itself it is a beautiful thing to have, but the story is also very touching and poignant. And it has lots of science in there. I love the way Hayes has used his artwork and poetry as a really imaginative way of telling the stories of the oceans and getting ideas across about the problems that we are causing. One of the big problems in the oceans is plastic waste, and the fact that so much of what we throw away or flush down the toilet ends up in the ocean and just stays there – it’s not biodegradable. A lot of it gets broken down into smaller and smaller fragments of plastic known as “mermaid tears”. These tiny plastic particles infiltrate marine ecosystems, causing all sorts of problems when animals eat them and choke on them, and because of toxic compounds associated with them. I was in the Red Sea just last year – every morning I would go out snorkelling on the reef next to where we were staying and I would pick up armfuls of plastic bags. I knew it wouldn’t make much difference in the grand scheme of things but it made me feel better. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter There is also the problem of climate change, which causes specific problems for the oceans like acidification – carbon dioxide not only warms up the atmosphere but it dissolves in the oceans, making them more acidic. That causes problems for all the creatures that live inside chalky, calcium-carbonate skeletons. The animals that build coral reefs, plus many plankton species and all sorts of organisms that are very important for ocean ecosystems, will suffer the consequences. We have to be positive that there are things we can do as individuals – everything from deciding which fish to eat, refusing to use plastic bags, that kind of thing. At the same time we can think about the bigger problems like climate change, and what we can do as individuals as well as nations to deal with that. There are many different scales at which we need to make our voices heard. We must also support the setting up of conservation areas. The UK at the moment is establishing a network of conservation areas around our shores. We desperately need things like that. We need to protect parts of the sea from these problems that we are inflicting on the whole planet, and give the oceans a chance to recover."

"This book is a great ecological adventure. At its heart, it is a message of renewal and growth. It’s about the importance of friendship and holding on to hope no matter how bad things seem. The world she builds is quite muted and grey, but with flashes of colour and ideas that things can get better. It felt to me like a very realistic view of what the world could be like in the not too distant future, if we don’t take real action in the coming years against climate change as well as pollution and overfishing, the whole gamut of impacts that the ocean is facing from human activities. Between Sea and Sky is probably suitable for slightly younger children, 9-13 perhaps. I’m very keen on seaweed. The idea of restorative farming is really interesting and exciting. There are some innovative projects looking at new ways of creating food and other products from the ocean. Farming the ocean in a thoughtful, creative way is not about simply putting in high-value fish species like salmon, but looking for different organisms that can genuinely create benefits for the ocean as well as providing food. Seaweed is a big part of that. It removes carbon from the atmosphere, it can be made into animal feed that reduces the methane they produce, and it’s good for people to eat too. Seaweed isn’t going to solve every problem we have in the ocean, and it’s not going to work everywhere. These regenerative farms can incorporate other species, oysters, clams and so on, which can help clean the water and recycle nutrients within a three-dimensional farm that reaches from the surface down to the seabed. The concept also engenders a real sense of ownership of parts of the sea, which is something that’s often missing. People often think of the ocean as this big open space that no one owns. When it comes to ocean farming it can really be a case of a local ownership and stewardship. It’s great there are more people who want to produce food and make a living from the ocean in a way that’s going to create benefits and work for years to come rather than just stripping away ocean life and reaping the profits, which has happened so much before."

"Nicola Davies has written a lot of books for all sorts of ages. Having read this book and enjoyed it so much, I think anyone could read this or be read this story. It is incredibly rich and beautiful. It is a future-looking ecological dystopia, but I think there’s also a lot of utopia in there too. Nicola has an extraordinary way of creating a view of what a very different world could look like, and what characters within that world could be doing. It’s a very beautiful story, that’s the bottom line, and I love its subtlety. But it races along as well, it’s a fabulous adventure story. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . It throws you into the story. She knows how to put her foot on the accelerator, and then also pull it off again and calm the pace. At those points it becomes deeply poetic and thoughtful. The depth of ecological thinking that went into this book is extraordinary. She is thinking about connections through the world, of what we can all do, the role of activism and resistance and how things can really be pushed towards change for the better. It’s a sweeping story, with glowing characters. If nothing else, read this for the magnificent elephant, or the tiger captain. Woven all through the story is this idea of the connections between humans and non-human animals. It’s the kind of book that makes you wish a lot of this could actually happen. I’d give anything to be able to understand the language of other animals and communicate with them. The Song that Sings Us speaks to why I chose fiction for this interview. What she does with her storytelling carries tremendous power to inspire readers and show them what’s possible."

"This is the oldest title in my pick of five and it is one that’s been with me since it was published in 1997. Reading it for the first time, it perfectly captured how I feel when I’m in the ocean, when I’m exploring and diving and seeing things for myself. It’s about a boy called Abel Jackson who lives with his mother in an idyllic, wild part of Western Australia. Abel is always in the sea, and one day he meets and makes friends with a huge fish which he names Blueback. I found myself deeply wishing when I was a kid that I had made friends with a giant fish. I definitely share Abel’s desire to understand the ocean, to communicate with the animals that live there and learn their language but also to find out what it is that’s making the sea sick. This book unflinchingly looks at the encroachment of the modern world into the ocean. It is a story that absolutely—and very sadly—stands the test of time. Since it was written, very few of the problems, like overfishing and pollution, have got any better and most of them have got worse. Abel is also quite ahead of his time, an activist before kids were talking about activism. He instinctively knows he has to do something about the threats to his beloved bay. For all the troubles it shows, Blueback is an evocative and elegant portrayal of ocean life. That’s another reason why I love this book, it transports you under the waves in such a vivid way."

"Terry Pratchett is a master world builder. This is a standalone book, not part of his Discworld series, and it’s an absolute joy to read. I’m a big fan of all Pratchett, and for me Nation stands out because it is so oceanic in its topic, in its breadth and in its storytelling. It’s an alternative history set in the Great Southern Pelagic Ocean. It’s a book about cultures coming together and learning from each other. It’s about environmental disasters, and how people adapt and cope with them. It’s incredibly rich with details of the world that we’re exploring, a realistic but slightly different version of our world. The characters are glorious, and it’s a brilliantly funny book but deeply thoughtful as well, which is what you always get from Pratchett. I love that he brought his view of the world to the ocean in such a gorgeous way in this book, it really is a lot of fun. This novel would probably work best for children age 12 and up."

"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."