Shark Week Ocean Reading

In honor of Discovery Channel's Shark Week,  the CRE Blog is featuring ocean-related content this week.

Author Susan Casey is Editor-In-Chief of O, The Oprah Magazine

The Wave by Susan Casey - The Wave examines the largest and most extreme waves of our oceans. Throughout the book, Casey documents two groups who chase these waves around the world; the scientists who wish to learn the secrets of our planet and those surfers who wish to push themselves to the limit physically and spiritually by riding freakishly large waves. This book features discussion of climate in terms of whether or not a consequence of global warming will be more stormy oceans, and thus, larger waves. Click here to read a review from the New York Times.


Casey is also the author of The Devil's Teeth, which focuses on Northern California's Great White Sharks. Click here for the New York Times review. 

Author Dr. Bruce Parker, currently of the Center for Maritime Systems at the Stevens Institute of Technology, is the former Chief Scientist of the National Ocean Service.

While Casey's writing features a journalistic tone, The Power of the Sea by Bruce Parker- former Chief Scientist of the National Ocean Service in NOAA- features a voice that is more scientific in nature. Parker discusses particular extreme events like the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and successfully conveys the history of the human mission to predict ocean related phenomena (for example, tides, tsunamis and storm surges). In addition, he details our contemporary technology that is in use and working toward this end of improving our ability to predict the Sea. The last chapter, entitled Predicting the Future-and Saving Lives is a forward looking discussion driven by the topics of El Niño and long term climate change.