Overview

THE IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER 'A comprehensive investigation of the staggering damage we have done to the world's oceans and its life forms' Observer 'A vital, fascinating, deeply researched exploration of Earth's last wilderness... Shocking and starkly 'illuminating - a must-read' Gaia Vince The ocean covers seventy per cent of the surface of our planet, and two thirds of this lie beyond national borders. Owned by all nations and no nation simultaneously, these waters are home to some of the richest and most biodiverse environments on the planet. But they are also home to exploitation on a scale that few of us can imagine. Here, industry and economic progress rule and lax enforcement and apathy are the status quo. Out of sight and often out of mind, a battle rages to control, profit from, protect, or obliterate the world's largest, wildest commons. Heffernan sets sail on a journey to uncover the truth behind deeply exploitative fishing practices, investigate the potentially devastating impact of deep-sea mining, and hold to task the Silicon-valley interventionists whose solutions to climate change are often wildly optimistic, radically irresponsible or both. The result is a forceful and deeply researched manifesto calling for the protection and preservation of this final frontier - the last vestiges of wilderness on Earth.

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9781788163583

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Powerful and urgent reportage. A must-read -- Gaia Vince Profoundly informed, passionately written, thrillingly adventurous...a masterful study in natural history -- Philip Ball An illuminating portrait of a world we rarely see and barely understand -- Robert Kunzig The essential guide to the high seas, by someone who has done more than almost anyone on earth in the last few years to understand the problems we face, and the solutions available. -- Will McCallum, director of Greenpeace UK On the surface the seas roll on as always. But below, much is changing. And much more is at stake as humans seek plunder and profit beyond the reach of nations. In The High Seas, Olive Heffernan ably takes us into the history, the present, and the future of this largest and most mysterious realm of the planet. -- Carl Safina Heffernan's reporting reveals our human imprint everywhere in the oceans, from the surface to the seafloor, by deciphering the geopolitics, economics, environmental sciences, and morality behind our use of the high seas -- Helen Rozwadowski, author of Vast Expanses The best introduction I have ever read to the biological, technical, and institutional issues connected with the High Seas and the exploitation of its resources. A gem of a book! -- Daniel Pauly

Author Information

Olive Heffernan is an award-winning science journalist. Her work has been published in Nature, WIRED, National Geographic, Salon, Scientific American and BBC Wildlife, among other outlets. Now freelance, Olive spent a number of years with Nature covering climate change, including as first chief editor of the research journal Nature Climate Change. In 2019, she joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as an adjunct lecturer and received a Giles St Aubyn Award for non-fiction from the Royal Society of Literature. In 2024, she was funded by the Pulitzer Centre to report on ocean conservation in Europe. Her first book THE HIGH SEAS: Ambition, Power and Greed on the Unclaimed Ocean was published in 2024. She lives by the sea in Ireland.

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