A Year with the Seals - by Alix Morris (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Environmental journalist Alix Morris spends an eye-opening year getting to know these elusive, intelligent creatures, investigating the effects of their extraordinary return from the brink of extinction and how we can try to bring nature back into balance.

It might be their large, strangely human eyes or their dog-like playfulness, but seals have long captured people's interest and affection, making them the perfect candidate for an environmental cause, as well as the subject of decades of study. Alix Morris spends a year with these magnetic creatures and brings them to life on the page, season by season, as she learns about their intelligence, their relationships with each other, their ecosystems, and the changing climate.

Morris also gets to know all of the competing interests in the intense debate about the newly recovered seal populations in our coastal waters, from local fishermen whose catch is often diminished by savvy seals, to tribes who once relied on seal-hunting for food, clothing, and medicine, to seal rescue workers and biologists, to surfers and swimmers now encountering seal-hunting sharks in coastal waters. A Year with the Seals is a rare look at what happens when conservation efforts actually work, and how human tampering with ecosystems continues to have unexpected consequences. But it's also a gripping adventure story of a journalist determined to understand seals and our relationship with them for herself.

Review Quotes

"A captivating account...Morris's evenhanded perspective eschews easy answers, finding instead a knotty parable about humanity's struggle to live within a natural world that people profoundly shape without ever achieving the absolute control they desire. Philosophical and impressively reported, this enthralls."

--Publishers Weekly, *STARRED REVIEW*

"Morris, a masterful storyteller, has done full justice to these creatures of the deep. A wondrous look at our love-hate relationship with the most human of animals." --Kirkus Reviews, *STARRED REVIEW*

"Growing up in New England, I never once saw a seal in the wild. Today, they are a common sight along the shores. Their remarkable journey from the brink of extinction to a thriving -- and sometimes controversial--presence is the heart of A Year With the Seals. Told with skill and compassion, this is a fascinating story of ecological change, and the complex relationship between humans and nature. A compelling read and an important addition to conservation literature, Morris's book makes a complicated issue accessible by weaving together diverse perspectives with clarity and insight."--Edith Widder, author of Below the Edge of Darkness

"A Year with Seals is a must read for anyone who has ever been enthralled by the sight of a seal's winsome face popping out of the water or wondered about our long human fascination with them. Writing with insight and humor, Morris develops a complex conservation story, revealing the challenges facing all animals adapting to life in the Anthropocene. This beautifully researched book asks not whether or how to control the natural world, but perhaps the most important question of all: how we might learn to control ourselves."--Leila Philip, New York Times-bestselling author of Beaverland

"As soon as Alix Morris introduced me to a talking seal with a Boston accent, I was hooked. A Year with the Seals is full of colorful characters both human and aquatic. Once you start reading this intriguing book, you might have a hard time putting it down."
--Leigh Ann Henion, New York Times-bestselling author of Phenomenal and Night Magic

"Splendid, warm, and exhaustively researched... Morris shares poignant and revelatory stories. Some are tragic. Some are frustrating. Some are funny. Some are sweet. Just listen. All these stories contain truth."
--Sy Montgomery, New York Times-bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus

"A fascinating deep dive with the seals of North America. In breathtaking detail, Morris shows us what it's like to be a seal, while revealing the beauty and challenges of living among these magnetic creatures. When we look out at the ocean, bottlenose dolphins seem to get all the love. Move over, Flipper. Make way for Hoover, the Talking Seal."--Joe Roman, author of Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World

About the Author

Alix Morris is a science writer in midcoast Maine. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Magazine, MIT Technology Review, Down East Magazine, and elsewhere, and she has graduate degrees in science writing from MIT and global health from Johns Hopkins.