TIDES: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean

Nonfiction

Living with mystery and complexity

TIDES
The Science and Spirit of the Ocean
By Jonathan White
360 pp. Trinity University Press

Reviewed by Lynne M. Hinkey

For anyone who is fascinated, inspired, or in awe of the ocean, here’s the book for you. The ocean has drawn us to its shores in fascination, awe, and even fear throughout human history. It inspires poetry, mythology, and exploration. Its power and beauty enchant and intrigue us, and piques our curiosity. Whether calling for explorers us to venture forth across its expanse, scientists to discover its secrets, or poets and philosophers to ponder the love affair between the moon and the tides, the sea calls to us to solve its myriad mysteries. Tides is an ode to all those facets of the ocean tides’ rhythmic rise and fall--from mythology and lore to scientific research and great engineering feats. 

Author Jonathan White interweaves anecdotes and stories from his experiences as a sailor and marine educator into the complex story of tides. He starts by recounting one of his own sailing misadventures: going aground due to a miscalculation of the tides in Alaska’s Kalinin Bay. Insult was added to injury since the mishap occurred during a weeklong seminar offered through the author’s nonprofit educational organization, Resource Institute. Imagine the mortification (on top of the terror) of shuttling your (paying) seminar participants to shore in the middle of the night before returning to save your boat. That openness, revealing his own vulnerability, curiosity, and fear (aka healthy respect) for the ocean, makes both the author and the topic of tides eminently relatable: Even White, our expert guide on this journey through all things tidal, has been confounded by the tides. 

Perhaps it’s only the passage of time that allows it, but White’s humor shines through here as he describes his effort to save valuables from his sinking vessel: “And the books. The books! ... I’ll never forget the titles that floated by: Ed Rickett’s Between Pacific Tides, Robert Bly’s When Sleepers Awake, Ram Dass’s How Can I Help? [Crew member] Lela manages a smile as she help up a soaked copy of Maxine Kumin’s In Deep.”

From here, White leads us on a worldwide adventure starting at the Bay of Fundy to explore the relationship among the 50-plus-foot tides, sandpipers, and mudshrimp, and how that has influenced the communities around the bay. Next, he takes us to an island monastery (at least at flood tide) in the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel, France to ponder the impact of tidal cycles on human psychology and culture and “[t]he idea that we’re drawn to these places, perhaps unwittingly, as part of a spiritual journey...intimacy and connection with the natural world that we crave...”  After that, White lets us experience the fear and excitement of China’s Silver Dragon, the world’s largest tidal bore, as the 25-foot wave races upriver, “terrorizing everything in its path.”

This whirlwind ride through some of the most incredible examples of tidal power had me completely and thoroughly mesmerized. White’s writing flows easily, carrying the reader along into the scene with vivid imagery. The story seamlessly moves from a geographic exploration of tides, to a scientific one. In a journey back in time, he recounts our changing understanding of tides, from ancient Greece with Aristotle, through Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler, to Galileo and Newton. White’s skill as a science writer shines through as his explanations and anecdotes keep the technical discussion of tides as accessible and intriguing as his up close and personal encounters. 

The final chapters look at the use of tides and water flow as a source of power, and at the impact of a changing climate on coastal communities. These impacts include amazing feats of engineering to keep the tide at bay, like England’s Thames Barrier. The 35,000-ton circular flood-gates swivel into position when London is threatened by a tide of 16 feet or higher. Completed in 1984, “the barrier closed four times in the 1980s, thirty-five times in the 1990s, and seventy-five times in the first decade of this century.” The impacts also include stories of entire communities like the Kuna in the San Blas Islands that will have to relocate from their island homes due to sea-level rise because there isn’t always an engineering fix. 

Finishing in Venice, where the tides are and always have been an intimate part of everyday life, White leaves us with hope. “The tides teach us to live with mystery and complexity.” We don’t yet completely understand the tides, and not knowing everything is okay. The important part, what gives us hope, is that we can and do continue to study them, increase our understanding, and hopefully, act accordingly.

Lynne Hinkey uses experiences from her years living in the Caribbean to infuse her novels with a bit of tropical magic, from the siren call of the islands, to the terror and hysteria caused by the mysterious chupacabra. Visit Lynne at www.lynnehinkey.com