Coming to Pass

About this book

"Coming to Pass tells the story of a little-developed necklace of northern Gulf Coast islands. Both a field guide to a beloved and impermanent Florida landscape and a call for its protection, Susan Cerulean's memoir chronicles the uniquely beautiful coast as it once was, as it is now, and as it may be as the sea level rises. For decades, Cerulean has kayaked, hiked, and counted birds on and around Dog, the St. Georges, and St. Vincent Islands with family and friends. She has collected scallops, snorkeled over a fallen lighthouse a mile offshore, and cast nets and fishing lines into cyclical runs of mullet and shrimp. Like most people, she didn't know how the islands had come to be or understand the large-scale change coming to the coast. With her husband, oceanographer Jeff Chanton, she studied the genesis of the coast and its inextricable link to the Apalachicola River. She interviewed scientists as they tracked and tallied magnificent and dwindling sea turtles, snowy white beach mice, and endangered plants. Illustrated with images from prizewinning nature photographer David Moynahan, Coming to Pass is the culmination of Cerulean's explorations and a reflection of our spiritual relationship and responsibilities to the world that holds us"-- "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"--