A fascinating look at the astonishingly talented sea turtles, and why they urgently need our help.
NOMADEN DER OZEANE: DAS GEHEIMNIS DER MEERESSCHILDKRÖTEN
(Nomads of the Sea: The Secret Life of Turtles)
by Frauke Bagusche
Ludwig/PRH Germany, March 2023
Turtles can do amazing things: some can dive to more than 1,000 metres, others transport organisms across the seas (and thus contribute to their distribution), others act as « architects of the oceans » by helping to spread coral reefs along the sea bed. All have impressive « super-senses », which mean they’re able to return to the beaches where they were born – often decades later, and from thousands of kilometres away. They orient themselves by the earth’s magnetic field, as well as their sense of smell, which allows them to recognise the scent of their first beach.
In NOMADS OF THE SEA, marine biologist Bagusche takes us on a singular voyage around the world and a journey back in time. Her fascinating stories about the turtles’ unexpected talents are interwoven with the latest scientific findings as well as her own personal experiences; and she shows why these popular shell-carriers urgently need our help, and what we can do to preserve these animals as well as our common home – the sea.
Frauke Bagusche, born in 1978, is a marine biologist. After gaining her doctorate at the University of Southampton in England she was responsible for marine biological stations on the Maldives and sailed 9,500 kilometres across the Atlantic from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean in order to draw attention to the litter pollution of the oceans. She gives lectures and holds seminars on subjects connected with marine biology. Her previous book The Blue Wonder was translated into several languages.
Paris, 1887. Gustave Eiffel wants to build the tallest tower in the world, yet no one seems to have faith that his absurd steel colossus will be finished in time for the World’s Fair – except, that is, for his bold daughter Claire. At a time when it is still thought unseemly for a woman to go for a walk on her own, she is her father’s most valued advisor. But Eiffel has to contend with more than deadlines. Paris’s cultural elite, led by Guy de Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas, think their city is being mutilated, and are taking a stand. Claire has her own worries too: her husband, young engineer Adolphe, is in charge of the high-risk construction of the tower’s top, and her fears for his safety are threatening to destroy their marriage. Then a worker is killed in a fall, and Claire meets handsome reporter Gordon Bennett, who promises her a carefree new life in America. Will she choose the Eiffel Tower, or a future in the New World?
Cressi Catterberg is freshly in love with gorgeous Mika. She feels that he might be the one – if only she didn’t suffer from commitment-phobia. And if only she wasn’t convinced that her true love is actually Mr Lindholm, her therapist. Emotional upheaval is just one of her problems: there’s her family too – or rather, her two sisters and three aunts, who constantly stick their nose into her business. But most of her energy is taken up with the café she has inherited from her mother, for which she has big plans. Mr Lindholm and Cressi’s aunts know it’s time Cressi started believing in herself – and in Mika.
Danzig, 1856. When young Johanna Berendt finds herself standing in front of the big villa in Langgasse Street, she feels deeply embarrassed. She eloped with a pianist just a few months ago, but now she’s back and hoping that her family will forgive her. Yet a shock awaits Johanna: her father has died, and her brother is now in charge of the family and their long-established merchant business. And he has no time for his freedom-loving sister.
Taxidermist Sonja lives all on her own deep in the woods. She avoids all human contact like the plague, and the inhabitants of the nearby village are in any case convinced she’s a witch. Her clientele is mostly rather suspect, and many of the jobs they give her are unpleasant and illegal. When she meets a young man and feels herself falling for him, she decides to escape her hermit’s life. To do that, she first has to take on one last well-paid and very, very illegal job. But then long-buried trauma and family secrets raise their head – and soon she is not the only one who’s in mortal danger…