Available From UC Press

"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation."—Library Journal
"Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas."—The Guardian 
Winner of the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award, Environment Category

It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell’s eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their likenesses into glass, documenting the life of oceans untouched by climate change and human impacts. Inspired by the Blaschkas’ uncanny replicas, Harvell set out in search of their living counterparts. In A Sea of Glass, she recounts this journey of a lifetime, taking readers along as she dives beneath the ocean's surface to a rarely seen world, revealing the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the living matches for the Blaschkas’ creations are, indeed, as fragile as glass.

Drew Harvell and the Blaschka menagerie are the subjects of the documentary Fragile Legacy, which won the Best Short Film award at the 2015 Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Learn more about the film and check out the trailer here.

Drew Harvell is Professor of Ecology at Cornell University, Curator of the Blaschka Glass Marine Invertebrate Collection, and author of Ocean Outbreak: Confronting the Rising Tide of Marine Disease.

“Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas.”—The Guardian
 
“Stunning photos . . . contextualize the dramatic taxonomic and ecological shifts in ocean life over the past 150 years.”––Nature
 
“The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation.”—Library Journal

“An engaging travel adventure that blends art, science, and natural history. A Sea of Glass documents Drew Harvell’s quest to document the conservation status of some of the ocean’s most charismatic marine invertebrates, from sea slugs to octopuses. Inspired by her discovery of a lost collection of handblown glass animals, Harvell dives the world’s oceans to determine how their living counterparts are faring in today’s beleaguered marine ecosystems. Beautifully illustrated, A Sea of Glass is both a call to action and a loving ode to our oceans.”—Ted Danson, actor, activist, and founding member of Oceana
 
"This book is significant not just for its scholarship on a fragile ecosystem but also for its celebration of the symbiotic relationship between art and science.”—Dale Chihuly, American glass sculptor and founder of the Pilchuck Glass School
 
“A Sea of Glass weaves two amazing substances, water and glass, into a living tapestry of history, with mesmerizing stories that combine science, art, and the lives of people who, like the author, were fascinated with the menagerie of small, rarely seen sea creatures that shape the nature of the ocean and, therefore, of life on Earth. Many of these animals have sharply declined in recent decades, but knowing of their existence may inspire caring and protection for them and the living sea they—and we—need to survive.”—Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence, former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and founder of Mission Blue
 
“Drew Harvell’s new book spans the fertile yet rarely visited boundary between science and art. Part history, part exploration, and part cautionary tale, A Sea of Glass transforms the fascinating story of the Blaschkas’ glass sea creatures into an elegant metaphor for the fate of our oceans. The result is a visual feast and a splendid read.”—Thor Hanson, author of Feathers and The Triumph of Seeds

“A Sea of Glass is a superb story inspired by the unparalleled artistic creations of two talented Bohemian glassmakers who provided a time capsule of marine life 150 years ago that now serves as a baseline for the author, a marine biologist, to reflect on the fragility and resiliency of life in the ocean. A delightful merger of art, science, and travel adventure that entertains, enlightens, and inspires.” —Jane Lubchenco, U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean and first woman to be appointed administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration