The University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center (DMC) will host a book signing and talk by Jonathan White, author of “Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean.” The event takes place on March 1 at noon.

White is an expert mariner and marine conservationist who ran educational programs aboard his 65-foot wooden schooner Crusader in the 1980s. In 1990 Crusader was almost destroyed when it ran aground with a large tide in Alaska’s Kalinin Bay.

White’s dramatic personal experience with ocean tides when Crusader was grounded was the impetus for this new book. In an effort to better understand their power, he traveled around the world to places like the Silver Dragon, a 25-foot tidal bore on China’s Qiantang River, and the Arctic, where he shimmied down a hole in the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for blue mussels. In Venice, White saw the city’s extraordinary preparations for the coming effects of sea level rise.

“I’ve learned a lot from White’s book about tides in just the first 50 pages. Communities all over the world are shaped by the tides, and reading of their experiences has given me even greater appreciation for our own tidelands, in the midcoast,” reflected DMC Director Heather Leslie.

Leslie is also a professor in UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences and herself an intertidal ecologist. “It’s a great book, and I’m looking forward to hearing from the author about the science and spirit of tides.”

“Tides” retails for $28 hardcover and will be available for purchase at the event thanks to Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop. The book also can be purchased at the Main Street, Damariscotta location beginning Feb. 21.  

The DMC is located at 193 Clarks Cove Road in Walpole. The talk will take place in Brooke Hall on the lower waterfront campus. Please bring a brown bag lunch. The DMC will provide beverages and cookies.

The University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center is an active center of marine research, education, and community engagement. We study coastal and marine ecosystems, as well as the human communities that are a part of them, in Maine and around the world. For directions or more information about the DMC, please visit our website dmc.umaine.edu.