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Relicts of a Beautiful Sea: Survival, Extinction, and Conservation in a Desert World. Christopher J. Norment. 2014. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill. ISBN 978-1-4696-1866-1. 271 p. US $28.00 (cloth: alkaline paper).-The marvel of aquatic animal life in isolated, seemingly hostile desert surroundings of the Death Valley region is beautifully captured in this blend of natural history, the hard realities and occasional successes of conservation biology in the region, and personal reflections on nature and human foibles. The author's conservation rationale is akin to Ralston's (1991:106) argument for an ethical approach to isolated desert fishes: (1) acknowledge their existence as historical entities (not artifacts of a flawed taxonomy), (2) "posit a remarkable biological competence (instead of luck)" to explain their continued existence, (3) recognize that "speciation is still going on in the desert (along with inevitable extinction)," and (4) "distinguish between natural and human-caused extinction rather like we do between death from old age and murder." Within this framework, Norment cultivates an impression of intrinsic value for isolated desert populations and "their right to exist independently of direct human concerns."
The book accommodates a wide audience with clear, jargon-free, and colorful accounts of natural history and the management efforts, legal battles, and people involved in conservation issues of the Death Valley region. Discussions with ranchers, water developers, and others who might not share the author's perspective are described with an eye to respectfully expressing their views. The descriptive materials, supported by literature notes and a bibliography, often are punctuated by lines from the author's favorite poets and his own lyrical, at times existential, musings. These communicate deep time, an uncertain future, the wonders of life at the edge of existence, and the worthiness of human efforts to protect the living embodiments of such an existence. The author finds personal solace in the persistence, seemingly against great odds, of the...