Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-248).
Contents:
Part 1. An unexpected turn. The call ; Under the radar ; Welcome home -- A charming couple. Mummy ; Daddy -- Hog Island. Buying in ; What does home mean? ; The aquarium ; Totems ; In my element ; Eel Bay ; The cutting edge ; Green Cay ; Andros -- Entr'acte -- Part 2. Paradise Island. Totems revisited (1) ; Totems revisited (2) ; Hope springs eternal (1); Beneath Atlantis ; Death of a scientist ; Ashes -- Collecting. Our faith ; The boat that wouldn't float ; A woman's point of view ; Miggy ; The saddle squirrelfish -- Part 3. The Chaplin Project. Fish out of water ; Dr. Ilves ; The study finally ; The debt ; Hope springs eternal (2) -- Full fathom five. Rest in peace ; Where we stand ; Reprise -- Dramatis personae. Chaplin family portrait ; Papillose blenny ; Fairy basslet ; Cherubfish ; Yellowhead jawfish ; Blackcap basslet ; Greenband goby.
Summary:
"Gordon Chaplin's father was a seemingly happy-go-lucky, charismatic adventurer who married a wealthy heiress and somehow transformed himself into the author of a landmark scientific study, Fishes of the Bahamas, published by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. As a young boy, the author took part in collecting specimens for his father. Fifty years later, he was asked to join a team from the same institution studying the state of sea life in the Bahamian waters where he grew up, as measured against his father's benchmark. The first of the sea changes presented in this eloquent book stems from climate change and is the drastic transformation of ocean life due to global warming. The second is his father's miraculous transformation from presumed playboy into scientist. And the third involves the author's own complicated relationship with his parents and in particular his father, as he grew older and assumed the part of the prodigal son. Fifty years later, returning to his childhood home, he delves into the mysteries of his father's life and the impossibility of ever truly recovering the past, or ever returning home."--Publisher description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.