In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and
surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the
science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under
the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities
left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a
twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang
River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped
monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates
the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he
delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human
culture--the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose,
colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the
elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet's waters in constant
motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen
color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the
tides.