Sarah Keene Meltzoff, 2013. Listening to Sea Lions. Currents of Change From Galapagos to Patagonia. A Review.
By any account, this is an unusual book, not easily stuck into a single category or discipline. Sarah Keene Meltzoff has woven some two decades of field research along the Latino Pacific coast into the six stories she tells from cover to cover: "Coastal people and their sea lion counterparts epitomize sea change as they struggle with changing climates."
I had the pleasure of seeing a little bit of her working methods in action, when she was researching the seas of change in Spanish fisheries policy in the mid-1980s after the country had entered the EU. In the preface to the book, she already sets the tone by letting the reader get glimpses on her own path of discovery and the approaches she developed and matured over time. It is the story within the story of the book with people like Margareth Mead offering orientation and mentoring in the early stages of her career. The reader can appreciate the serendipity engendered by getting ever closer to linking ethnographic field observations and empathetic relations with leaders in fishing communities. The critical engagement with these leaders and their communities, with fisheries administrations and traders sharpens the sense of place and the different perspectives, but also for the quest for extracting lessons of wider applicability. I enjoyed reading the book for more than one reason and I hope others will be enticed to read and enjoy it too. Read more.