Available From UC Press

Winner of the Sustainability Science Award 2020, Ecological Society of America
Winner of the PROSE Award (Biological Sciences category) 2020, Association of American Publishers

There is a growing crisis in our oceans: mysterious outbreaks of infectious disease are on the rise. Marine epidemics can cause mass die-offs of wildlife from the bottom to the top of food chains, impacting the health of ocean ecosystems as well as lives on land. Portending global environmental disaster, ocean outbreaks are fueled by warming seas, sewage dumping, unregulated aquaculture, and drifting plastic.

Ocean Outbreak follows renowned scientist Drew Harvell and her colleagues into the field as they investigate how four iconic marine animals—corals, abalone, salmon, and starfish—have been devastated by disease. Based on over twenty years of research, this firsthand account of the sometimes gradual, sometimes exploding impact of disease on our ocean’s biodiversity ends with solutions and a call to action. Only through policy changes and the implementation of innovative solutions from nature can we reduce major outbreaks, save some ocean ecosystems, and protect our fragile environment.

 

Drew Harvell is Professor of Marine Ecology at Cornell University. She has published over 170 scientific articles in leading journals and is a fellow of the Ecological Society of America and the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Her book A Sea of Glass received a National Outdoor Book Award and was recognized as one of the Smithsonian's Best “Art Meets Science” Books of 2016. 

“Drew Harvell’s life changed when she visited her Caribbean field site and discovered dead fan corals everywhere, killed by a new disease no one had ever seen. This inspired a dramatic career change, and Harvell committed to battling diseases in the ocean that kill corals, snails, and sea stars. Part memoir and part science exposé, Ocean Outbreak is a recipe for launching into the unknown, providing a road map showing how one person can marshal the world of science to win against a global peril.”—Steve Palumbi, author of The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change
 
“A marine medical whodunit, where the patients include sea stars facing odds worse than humans did during the Black Death. It is also a tale of hope, thanks to the dedication of a small band of scientists, including the author, who work tirelessly to understand and reduce the threats that disease poses to ocean life.”––Nancy Knowlton, author of Citizens of the Sea
 
“As a marine ecologist specializing in disease, Drew Harvell worries most about the threat posed by microbes, because in oceans beset by so many stresses, disease-causing microbes can gain the upper hand and bring about rapid, wide-scale ecological change. Ocean Outbreak brilliantly lays out the risk of disease and smart plans for improving ocean health.”––Ted Danson actor, activist, and founding board member of Oceana
 
“From salmon to sea stars, abalone to corals, marine disease pioneer Drew Harvell eloquently captures today’s threats to the ocean—and their solutions.”––Jane Lubchenco, Professor, Oregon State University; former Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; inaugural U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean
 
“With riveting storytelling and a chilling sense of urgency, Drew Harvell astutely analyzes the catastrophic outbreaks decimating four kinds of iconic sea creatures with consequences that affect everyone, everywhere. Knowing is the key to caring, and Ocean Outbreak has what it takes to upend complacency and inspire actions to heal the harm humans have imposed on the sea—while there is still time.”––Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence and founder of Mission Blue