In Conversation: On The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans & Imperiled Reef: The Fascinating, Fragile Life of a Caribbean Wonder

Sandy Sheehy has written frequently on human relationships and the natural environment. Her work has appeared in Town & Country, Forbes, House Beautiful, Self, Working Woman, and Money, among other national magazines. She is also the author of Texas Big Rich: Exploits, Eccentricities and Fabulous Fortunes Won and Lost, Connecting: The Enduring Power of Female Friendship, and the novel Deserts of the Heart. Imperiled Reef: The Fascinating, Fragile Life of a Caribbean Wonder (University of Florida Press) grew out of Sheehy’s love of scuba diving and makes a strong case for protecting an international marvel, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. The second-largest coral structure on the planet, it stretches 625 miles through the Caribbean Sea along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. But this ecological treasure is now at risk; its threats range from global warming and overfishing to irresponsible development. Sheehy draws impassioned attention to the efforts of the nongovernmental agencies, scientists, individuals, and local communities who are working together to address these challenges, and offers what Publishers Weekly called a “paean to a unique ecosystem.”

Cynthia Barnett, environmental journalist in residence at the University of Florida, is the author of four books, including Rain, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and named a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing. In her latest work, The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans (W. W. Norton & Company), she blends cultural history and science to trace our long love affair with seashells and the hidden lives of the mollusks that make them. In the process, she reveals a larger story about nature, our changing oceans, and ourselves. The New York Times noted that The Sound of the Sea “will have you marveling at nature … Barnett’s account remarkably spirals out, to become a much larger story about … environmental crises and preservation.”