A Nature of Writing Speaker Series event, in partnership with Third Place Books
Every spring, thousands of rhinoceros auklets return to Destruction Island off Washington’s coast, where they dig burrows, lay eggs, and raise their chicks. Small, gray, and adorned with a curious horn on their bill, these funny-looking birds have become an unlikely but vitally important indicator for the health of the Pacific ecosystem as a whole. In Seabirds as Sentinels, Eric Wagner joins a team of scientists who have been tracking the lives of auklets and other seabirds to gauge the effects of climate change in the region. The North Pacific—sometimes called the Blue Serengeti—is one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, supporting salmon, whales, seals, and countless other species, including people. Yet its waters are changing in unprecedented ways. Wagner intersperses accounts of research expeditions with deep dives into phytoplankton, forage fish, lighthouses, ocean currents, and other important elements in the Pacific Ocean’s tangled ecological web. Weaving together natural history, marine science, and the myriad stories that humans tell about their environments, Seabirds as Sentinels helps us keep a close watch on the uncertain future of the oceans that sustain us all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eric Wagner is a staff writer with the Puget Sound Institute at University of Washington, Tacoma. He has a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Washington and is the author of Once and Future River: Reclaiming the Duwamish, Penguins in the Desert, and After the Blast: The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens. His essays and journalism have appeared in The Atlantic, High Country News, Orion, and Smithsonian, among other places.
ABOUT OUR BOOKSELLER PARTNER Now celebrating over 25 years in business, Third Place Books is a Pacific Northwest bookselling institution with three locations in the Seattle area, each featuring a partner restaurant and gathering space. Hosting nearly 300 author events a year, Third Place Books has proudly supported Puget Sound authors since 1998.
