Coming to Pass Florida's Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change

"Ten years ago, Sue Cerulean realized the coastlines of her childhood along the New Jersey shore and of her adult years (a little-developed necklace of Gulf islands in Florida) were beginning to shift into the sea. She began to chronicle the story of "her" coastal areas as they are now, as they once were, and how they might be as Earth's oceans rise. "Coming to Pass" is both a field guide to a beloved and impermanent landscape, and a call for its protection. Cerulean and her husband, oceanographer Jeff Chanton, took many field trips in various parts of these coastal areas. But their varied explorations were anything but academic, as they sailed, kayaked, hiked, and counted birds. They snorkeled over a fallen lighthouse that lies a mile offshore of a rolling island, and cast nets and fishing lines into cyclical runs of mullet and shrimp. They tracked and tallied magnificent and dwindling sea turtles, snowy white beach mice, and endangered plants. As she watched how wild creatures define their own needs, and their territories, she reflected on our human spiritual relationship and responsibilities to the world that holds us. The book will be illustrated with occasional images from prize-winning nature photographer David Moynahan"--