In the tradition of Silent Spring , the first book to document the massive worldwide destruction of our oceans.. In this landmark call to action, Colin Woodard confronts the major environmental problem of our time: the fate of the oceans. Once thought to be limitless reservoirs constantly renewing themselves, the oceans are in fact bounded seas that lie within our power to kill--and as Woodard convincingly shows, we are killing them, through pollution, harmful fishing practices, ignorance, and global warming.A comprehensive, eyewitness view of how and why the oceans are in trouble, Woodards book covers all the aspects of this complex subject--not just the collapse of the fisheries but also the deaths of coral reefs, the effects of sea-level rise, and the creation (through pollution) of massive dead zones, including the entire Black Sea and much of the Gulf of Mexico.