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Ocean Country: One Woman's Voyage from Peril to Hope in her Quest To Save the Seas
Ocean Country is an adventure story, a call to action, and a poetic meditation on the state of the seas. But most importantly it is the story of finding true hope in the midst of one of the greatest crises to face humankind, the rapidly degrading state of our environment. After a near-drowning accident in which she was temporarily paralyzed, Liz Cunningham crisscrosses the globe in an effort to understand the threats to our dazzling but endangered oceans. This intimate account charts her thrilling journey through unexpected encounters with conservationists, fishermen, sea nomads, and scientists in the Mediterranean, Sulawesi, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Papua, New Guinea.
376 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2015
About the author
Liz Cunningham
2 books6 followersI write about ocean conservation and the traits we need to be effective stewards of our seas and life on this planet – among others, courage, an engaged, active hope, and the ability to work together to find solutions. My forthcoming book, Ocean Country (North Atlantic Books, Fall 2015), with a foreword by Carl Safina, examines the state of the oceans in four key regions of the world.
I grew up outside of New York City and received a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Drawn by the openness of the vast Pacific landscape and California’s innovative spirit, I moved west in search of what felt like some “intangible, infinite thing.” I learned to scuba dive, raced sailboats. I loved what the ocean seemed to demand of us: elemental truths such as camaraderie and grace in overwhelming situations.
I worked as an editor and writer for over fifteen years and authored my first book, Talking Politics: Choosing the President in the Television Age (Praeger), a series of oral-history interviews with top television journalists such as Tom Brokaw, Larry King and Robin MacNeil. In the year following the book’s release I was in an accident in which I nearly lost my life. The combination of those two experiences – a book launch and an acute reminder of how precious each moment is – caused me to reassess my work. Over time I realized my greatest passion was to help others connect with nature and inspire them to participate in forging a sustainable future.
My writing has been published in Earth Island Journal, The East Bay Express, The Outward Bound International Journal, Times of the Islands, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Marin Poetry Center Anthology. I also draw and paint. My drawings have been exhibited at a variety of venues including the Berkeley Art Center, the COA Ethel Blum Gallery, Fort Mason Center and the Oakland Museum. I am active in the education field as the cofounder, with my husband Charlie Costello, of KurtHahn.org, the Web archive for the founder of Outward Bound. I serve on the board of Outward Bound Peacebuilding.
I grew up outside of New York City and received a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Drawn by the openness of the vast Pacific landscape and California’s innovative spirit, I moved west in search of what felt like some “intangible, infinite thing.” I learned to scuba dive, raced sailboats. I loved what the ocean seemed to demand of us: elemental truths such as camaraderie and grace in overwhelming situations.
I worked as an editor and writer for over fifteen years and authored my first book, Talking Politics: Choosing the President in the Television Age (Praeger), a series of oral-history interviews with top television journalists such as Tom Brokaw, Larry King and Robin MacNeil. In the year following the book’s release I was in an accident in which I nearly lost my life. The combination of those two experiences – a book launch and an acute reminder of how precious each moment is – caused me to reassess my work. Over time I realized my greatest passion was to help others connect with nature and inspire them to participate in forging a sustainable future.
My writing has been published in Earth Island Journal, The East Bay Express, The Outward Bound International Journal, Times of the Islands, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Marin Poetry Center Anthology. I also draw and paint. My drawings have been exhibited at a variety of venues including the Berkeley Art Center, the COA Ethel Blum Gallery, Fort Mason Center and the Oakland Museum. I am active in the education field as the cofounder, with my husband Charlie Costello, of KurtHahn.org, the Web archive for the founder of Outward Bound. I serve on the board of Outward Bound Peacebuilding.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 29, 2025
Sad and a bit rambling combining a woman's journey and the dire state of the oceans. Some wonderful moments of connection across culture and some where it seems important that Liz's freedom to travel the world and the privilege attendant should be mentioned.
November 22, 2016
Cunningham's poetic and carefully thought out prose powerfully characterized the ocean and its inhabitants. As someone who lives and works on a ship in the Pacific, I wanted to learn more about the seas and marine biodiversity so I can better interact with my environment. This book helped me do just that!
*A great read for anyone who cares about the environment but is unsure of how to make a positive impact.*
*A great read for anyone who cares about the environment but is unsure of how to make a positive impact.*
July 4, 2019
I really, really would have rated this higher. The information was great. But it was just so incredibly long, and I found it hard to read more than 30 pages at a time.
April 16, 2023
This book really touched me. I've never read pages, that managed so well to express my restlessness and longing - with regards to ocean life and conservation, but also life in general - so well and to the point. In that, it feels part like a guide and part like a semi-autobiographical journey - I highly recommend reading it!
June 15, 2019
A lyrical look at one woman's search for beauty and hope in the environmental destruction facing the seas. Author Liz Cunningham takes readers on her deep sea dives, all across the world, and illuminates the dire situations of a world we don't often consider. Essential, luminous, life-changing.
February 27, 2023
Good book written for the non-scientist about the threats facing the world's oceans, but written in the style of an adventure story. Definitely a worthwhile read if you care about the natural world, or if you need to be convinced to do so.
July 6, 2016
From Annis Pratt:
One of the serious detriments to acting on climate change is the quivering psychological jelly each new report of raging fires, record-breaking storms and floods, vanishing shorelines and imperiled species reduces us to. In her readable and deeply felt Ocean Country Liz Cunningham writes about this “planetary anguish.” She starts out literally paralyzed from a kayak accident but goes forth to transcend both her physical limitations and the disheartening degradation of her beloved ocean. Through a beautifully written blend of travel adventure, memoir, and nature observations, she broadens our understanding of our ocean’s challenges and what we can do about them.
Cunningham’s quest takes her to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, along the California coast, to the Coral Triangle in the Pacific Ocean , and to the Mediterranean Sea. She draws us into richly diverse ocean landscapes and chronicles the issues plaguing communities dependent upon the sea for their livelihood. Although she finds no easy solutions, as often as she comes upon threatened marine ecosystem her renewed anguish is mitigated by the people she meets who are trying to do something about it.
In the Turks and Caicos Islands she helps a marine ecologist who is restoring mangrove habitats that not only support a wide variety of interdependent species but also contribute significantly to the atmospheric oxygen we all need to survive. Her horror that developers have tried to eradicate mangroves in order to build a Christian “Spiritual Retreat” and that the corrupt government has supported decimating mangrove islands for a resort turns to hope and a sense of usefulness as she tallies mangrove seedlings with a marine conservationist. The developments have been thwarted, there is a national park and a marine conservator in place, and she is pleased to find herself “documenting healing”— “There on that artificial island created out of pillaged ocean, in the new roots pushing out leaves, I saw it for myself —hash marks on a slate for each instance of life’s insurgence.”
In the Tukanbesi island of Wangi-Wangi near Papua, New Guinea, Cunningham visits fishing communities whose stocks have been decimated by overfishing, dynamite bombs and cyanide poisoning, all combined with pollution from sewage run-off to damage marine life and kill coral reefs. The fishermen create a forum to agree on common goals:
“If someone uses the bomb or cyanide, we go to him and we talk. This is our reef, we say. If you do this, no one will have fish.” “The fisherman,” Cunningham notes, “have begun to pierce the armor of that goliath of problems, the Tragedy of the Commons: the tragic loss of common resources because of an inability to forego narrow self-interest and agree how to preserve them.”
In the urban, sophisticated culture of Parisian haute cuisine, a world away from the worried Pacific islanders, Cunningham discovers a collaboration of chefs, fishmongers, middle men and fishermen determined to foster sustainable sandeel fisheries. “The natural feeling of a fishermen is that of a hunter, “one of them tells her. “Now it’s totally different, because we share the fish. We are no longer hunters.” To see fishermen replacing individual with community well being, she concludes, “Is like Columbus announcing that the world isn’t flat.” The fishermen’s shift to a “round world” paradigm consists of scientific monitoring (which they pay for), and “adaptive, community-based, networked, task-specific” initiatives. Or, as one of the Parisian Chefs puts it, “The message is that we are able to put back something that seemed completely out of control. All we need is political will in order to go toward sustainability.”
What Cunningham suggests in her world wide ocean quest is that we may feel powerless about global warming as individuals but be empowered when we realize how many groups have rolled up their sleeves and are hard at work, These include community forums, NGOs like The Ocean Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund, and SeaWeb Europe as well as local and national governments establishing Marine Protective Areas and a wide variety of local and national citizen groups lobbying for the environment. These are all a part of the shift to a “circular economy” as we transition from creating too much product, using it inefficiently and creating excessive waste to making and using only what we need and recycling it when we are finished.
“What if I lived as if my voice mattered,” Cunningham asks of herself. It seems to me that, by engaging us in her passionate quest she strengthens her reader’s will roll up our sleeves on behalf of our beloved planet; and, in so doing, answers her own question.
One of the serious detriments to acting on climate change is the quivering psychological jelly each new report of raging fires, record-breaking storms and floods, vanishing shorelines and imperiled species reduces us to. In her readable and deeply felt Ocean Country Liz Cunningham writes about this “planetary anguish.” She starts out literally paralyzed from a kayak accident but goes forth to transcend both her physical limitations and the disheartening degradation of her beloved ocean. Through a beautifully written blend of travel adventure, memoir, and nature observations, she broadens our understanding of our ocean’s challenges and what we can do about them.
Cunningham’s quest takes her to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, along the California coast, to the Coral Triangle in the Pacific Ocean , and to the Mediterranean Sea. She draws us into richly diverse ocean landscapes and chronicles the issues plaguing communities dependent upon the sea for their livelihood. Although she finds no easy solutions, as often as she comes upon threatened marine ecosystem her renewed anguish is mitigated by the people she meets who are trying to do something about it.
In the Turks and Caicos Islands she helps a marine ecologist who is restoring mangrove habitats that not only support a wide variety of interdependent species but also contribute significantly to the atmospheric oxygen we all need to survive. Her horror that developers have tried to eradicate mangroves in order to build a Christian “Spiritual Retreat” and that the corrupt government has supported decimating mangrove islands for a resort turns to hope and a sense of usefulness as she tallies mangrove seedlings with a marine conservationist. The developments have been thwarted, there is a national park and a marine conservator in place, and she is pleased to find herself “documenting healing”— “There on that artificial island created out of pillaged ocean, in the new roots pushing out leaves, I saw it for myself —hash marks on a slate for each instance of life’s insurgence.”
In the Tukanbesi island of Wangi-Wangi near Papua, New Guinea, Cunningham visits fishing communities whose stocks have been decimated by overfishing, dynamite bombs and cyanide poisoning, all combined with pollution from sewage run-off to damage marine life and kill coral reefs. The fishermen create a forum to agree on common goals:
“If someone uses the bomb or cyanide, we go to him and we talk. This is our reef, we say. If you do this, no one will have fish.” “The fisherman,” Cunningham notes, “have begun to pierce the armor of that goliath of problems, the Tragedy of the Commons: the tragic loss of common resources because of an inability to forego narrow self-interest and agree how to preserve them.”
In the urban, sophisticated culture of Parisian haute cuisine, a world away from the worried Pacific islanders, Cunningham discovers a collaboration of chefs, fishmongers, middle men and fishermen determined to foster sustainable sandeel fisheries. “The natural feeling of a fishermen is that of a hunter, “one of them tells her. “Now it’s totally different, because we share the fish. We are no longer hunters.” To see fishermen replacing individual with community well being, she concludes, “Is like Columbus announcing that the world isn’t flat.” The fishermen’s shift to a “round world” paradigm consists of scientific monitoring (which they pay for), and “adaptive, community-based, networked, task-specific” initiatives. Or, as one of the Parisian Chefs puts it, “The message is that we are able to put back something that seemed completely out of control. All we need is political will in order to go toward sustainability.”
What Cunningham suggests in her world wide ocean quest is that we may feel powerless about global warming as individuals but be empowered when we realize how many groups have rolled up their sleeves and are hard at work, These include community forums, NGOs like The Ocean Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund, and SeaWeb Europe as well as local and national governments establishing Marine Protective Areas and a wide variety of local and national citizen groups lobbying for the environment. These are all a part of the shift to a “circular economy” as we transition from creating too much product, using it inefficiently and creating excessive waste to making and using only what we need and recycling it when we are finished.
“What if I lived as if my voice mattered,” Cunningham asks of herself. It seems to me that, by engaging us in her passionate quest she strengthens her reader’s will roll up our sleeves on behalf of our beloved planet; and, in so doing, answers her own question.
October 14, 2015
4.5 STARS
This book is a really great, informational book about the ocean and the environment. It's both autobiographical and educational and even though it wasn't something I would normally read, I found it quite interesting and entertaining.
Ocean Country follows Liz Cunningham's journey with the ocean, and how she learns to understand it better, and with that how she comes to love and appreciate all it has to offer. This book explains how the marine ecology works and why it's so important to protect it.
Throughout the entire book Liz tells you where she is, and who it is she meets there. I felt that added a sense of reality to the book, and that it kept the book from feeling like a textbook, which I quite enjoyed. The people she meets are frequently refrenced to and expounded upon because these are friends who have made lasting impressions on Liz. They've taught her things and tried to better the world in general.
As I said, this book is following a journey. Part of that journey is Liz trying to figure out how she can make an impact on the atrocities occurring to the ocean and really the environment in general. I feel like just by having written this book and by having learnt and seeing things from those whose jobs are saving the ocean and keeping the ocean healthy, Liz has done her part. She truly shows the importance of this matter, and she also gives the reader a few tips to keep up this work, by doing something simple like eating sustainable seafood.
This book is heavily laden with facts and studies that are mentioned briefly and then given footnotes to their sources in the back of the book. I really appreciated this because it gave a way to check the study out of I was interested in hearing more, yet I didn't have an information overload. It also cemented the information given as fact.
All in all I really liked this booked and would recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in a factual book about the ocean that's lightened by the story that's interwoven throughout.
This book is a really great, informational book about the ocean and the environment. It's both autobiographical and educational and even though it wasn't something I would normally read, I found it quite interesting and entertaining.
Ocean Country follows Liz Cunningham's journey with the ocean, and how she learns to understand it better, and with that how she comes to love and appreciate all it has to offer. This book explains how the marine ecology works and why it's so important to protect it.
Throughout the entire book Liz tells you where she is, and who it is she meets there. I felt that added a sense of reality to the book, and that it kept the book from feeling like a textbook, which I quite enjoyed. The people she meets are frequently refrenced to and expounded upon because these are friends who have made lasting impressions on Liz. They've taught her things and tried to better the world in general.
As I said, this book is following a journey. Part of that journey is Liz trying to figure out how she can make an impact on the atrocities occurring to the ocean and really the environment in general. I feel like just by having written this book and by having learnt and seeing things from those whose jobs are saving the ocean and keeping the ocean healthy, Liz has done her part. She truly shows the importance of this matter, and she also gives the reader a few tips to keep up this work, by doing something simple like eating sustainable seafood.
This book is heavily laden with facts and studies that are mentioned briefly and then given footnotes to their sources in the back of the book. I really appreciated this because it gave a way to check the study out of I was interested in hearing more, yet I didn't have an information overload. It also cemented the information given as fact.
All in all I really liked this booked and would recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in a factual book about the ocean that's lightened by the story that's interwoven throughout.
December 2, 2015
Liz Cunningham's OCEAN COUNTRY is written from a heartfelt point of view, originating from a sea accident that would cause most people to walk away from that line of work. But Liz continued on. Her nonfiction memoir, combined with her research and experience on the state of our oceans, is a needed book today. We need to understand the truth about the water that covers the majority of our planet, and how the ocean ecosystems need to be kept in check. Liz has been there, in those watery depths. She's been over it, through it, and under it for years and years, and she shows us her magical journey. I really enjoyed this powerfully written and stunning book.
December 27, 2015
A beautiful book, both outside (cover) and inside. In this book, we get to journey with Liz as she travels many oceans in hopes to understand the environment. If there is a book that gets my travel bug going, this was it! Liz is dealing with a number of challenges she has had in her own life, including an accident that left her paralyzed. I enjoyed the book because of the various interactions she has with other ‘ocean people’ in all sorts of locations. I was awarded this book from Good Reads, but opinions are strictly my own.
September 22, 2016
I received this book through goodreads giveaway.
After a near drowning accident in which she is temporarily paralyzed, Liz Cunningham travels the globe to understand the threats to our ocean. She shares an intimate account, tells of her conversations with fisherman and people she met in her travels. This book will open people's eyes to the effect and damage that id being done to our oceans with little regard.
Really great information.
After a near drowning accident in which she is temporarily paralyzed, Liz Cunningham travels the globe to understand the threats to our ocean. She shares an intimate account, tells of her conversations with fisherman and people she met in her travels. This book will open people's eyes to the effect and damage that id being done to our oceans with little regard.
Really great information.
September 15, 2015
A very thought provoking and interesting read.
September 12, 2015
I loved this story of a woman who has a accident in the ocean and then decides to save them. A very intelligent read for anyone.
June 27, 2020
One of the best books I have read this year, and certainly the most important.
January 5, 2020
4.5 stars.
One of my favorites read in 2019:
https://hollograms.blogspot.com/2020/...
One of my favorites read in 2019:
https://hollograms.blogspot.com/2020/...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews