Book review: Christine Figgener's life with sea turtles a remarkable narrative weaving of science and soul (2024)

My Life With Sea Turtles

Christine Figgener | Greystone Books

$38.95 | 272pp.

Good popular science writing requires a rare combination of skills and attitudes. The author must be a trained scientist herself or at least a well-informed lay person capable of presenting often complex issues in clear, lucid prose. She must be able to find and tell the human interest and colour stories that draw the reader into her narrative without sacrificing scientific rigour. Given how important context is in understanding scientific issues, the author must weave many disparate strands of information into a cohesive narrative fabric. Readers who love good popular science writing owe another debt of gratitude to Vancouver’s Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Institute for publishing this latest in their impressive list of books that address the global enviro crisis.

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The German-born marine biologist Christine Figgener has all the rare and valuable traits required for success in popular science writing. The proof is her remarkable first book, My Life With Sea Turtles. Figgener has devoted her adult life to studying sea turtles, some of the most ancient animals on the planet. They date back at least to the Cretaceous era, over 120 million years ago.

Figgener is not simply a researcher, however. She is also a passionate and effective campaigner for reforms designed to protect the sea turtle populations that have, so far, survived a cascade of disasters, mostly human caused, that mean that the remaining seven species of sea turtle are all threatened with extinction. One significant element of activism has been the author’s creation and dissemination of a video of a sea turtle with a plastic straw embedded in its nose, a video that went viral and led to a measurable increase in popular concern for these threatened beasts and awareness of the problem of plastic pollution.

We are with the author as she has her first encounter with a sea turtle in the Red Sea and as she observes with appropriate awe and wonder the miracle arrivals of sea turtle populations back from long migrations in the open ocean to the beaches where they hatched in Costa Rica.

This is a remarkable, charming, and important book. It records an adventurous life lived with impressive integrity, and it is full of good stories. I suggest you buy a copy and share it with a young person who might one day be the next generation’s Figgener.

Highly recommended.

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Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at tos65@telus.net

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