Includes bibliographical references and index.

Changing Seas. Four and a half billion years ; Food from the sea ; Fewer fish in the sea ; Winds and currents ; Life on the move ; Rising tides ; Corrosive seas ; Dead zones and the world's great rivers ; Unwholesome waters ; The age of plastic ; The not so silent world ; Aliens, invaders, and the homogenization of life ; Pestilence and plague ; Mare incognitum ; Ecosystems at your service -- Changing Course. Farming the sea ; The great cleanup ; Can we cool our warming world? ; A new deal for the oceans ; Life renewed ; Saving the giants of the sea ; Preparing for the worst -- The sea ahead -- Seafood with a clear conscience -- Conservation charities working to protect ocean life. Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this book the author, a conservation biologist leads readers on a tour of mankind's relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on Earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, he looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life. We have always been fish eaters, from the dawn of civilization, but in the last twenty years we have transformed the oceans beyond recognition. Putting our exploitation of the seas into historical context, the author offers a devastating account of the impact of modern fishing techniques, pollution, and climate change, and reveals what it would take to steer the right course while there is still time. The book takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.