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Charlene D’Avanzo

Environmental Mystery Writer

Secrets Haunt the Lobsters’ Sea – References, Sources, Background, Book Group Questions

BOOKS

  • The Lobster Coast – Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier by Colin Woodard (2004, Penguin)
  • The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson (2004, Harper Collins)
  • How to Catch a Lobster in Down East Maine by Christina Lemieux Oragano (2012, The History Press)

LOBSTER BIOLOGY & ECOLOGY – climate change and acidification

  • Response of lobster larvae to ocean acidification and warming (NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program and Sea Grant)
  • An Ocean Warming: Ocean Acidification, Lobster, and the Need for More Research
  • The Enigma Behind America’s Freak 20-year lobster boom
  • DF Cowan. 1999. Method for assessing relative abundance, size distribution, and growth of recently settled and early juvenile lobsters (Homarus americanus) in the lower intertidal zones. Journal of Crustacean Biology 19: 738-751
  • JS Goldstein and WH Watson. 2005. Seasonal movements of American lobsters in southern Gulf of Maine coastal waters: patterns, environmental triggers, and implications for larval release Journal of Shellfish Research 24(3):761-765. 2005
  • BK Quinn. 2017. Threshold temperatures for performance and survival of American lobster larvae: A review of current knowledge and implications to modeling impacts of climate change. Fisheries Research 186: 383-396
  • RS Steneck, RA Wahle. 2013. American lobster dynamics in a brave new ocean. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 70: 1612-1624

GULF OF MAINE WATERS WARMING

  • AJ Pershing et al. 2015. Slow adaptation the face of warming leads to collapse of the Gulf of Maine cod fishery. Science 809-812
  • Gulf of Maine will become too warm for many key fish, report says
  • Gulf of Maine, Explained: The Warming Gulf of Maine
  • MAYDAY Gulf of Maine in Distress

LOBSTERMEN & LOBSTERING

  • M. Conathan. January 15, 2015. Fishermen’s views of a changing ocean. Center for American Progress.
  • Many in Stonington, Maine’s lobstering capital, keep quiet about drug problem – April 2017
  • Consider the Lobsterman
  • Learning From Maine’s Lobster Wars
  • Fading fishermen: A historic industry faces a warming world

GULF OF MAINE CORAL GARDENS

  • Hanging coral gardens in the Gulf of Maine add to excitement of  summer full of deep-sea coral discoveries. 2014. NOAA Fisheries Service
  • Images of the Gulf of Maine 2014
  • P Auster et al. 2013. Octocoral gardens in the Gulf of Maine (NW Atlantic). Biodiversity 14: 193-194

* Also see “Climate Change & Global Warming” on this website

 

BOOK GROUP QUESTIONS

  1. Good crime writers include red herrings – false clues – to lead readers astray. Did D’Avanzo try to throw you off track? If so, what tripped you up?
  2. Themes in the book include: fear of commitment, loss of family, respect for the natural world, women in the workplace, appreciation for what you have, great pressure reveals true character. Did D’Avanzo effectively develop these themes? If so, how? Was there redemption or growth for the main character?
  3. Talk about the characters. Whether quirky, loyal, hard-working, steadfast, obnoxious, etc., were they well developed? Were there particular characters you did or did not relate to?
  4. At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
  5. Did the author ratchet up the suspense? When did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened?
  6. Were there passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing, that somehow struck you. What, if anything, made you stop and think or maybe laugh?
  7. One of D’Avanzo’s key goals is to “get readers on and into the ocean”. Were there particular scenes in which she did this for you especially well?
  8. D’Avanzo calls her novels “eco-mysteries”, and she tries to get the environmental messages across without hitting readers over the head with it. In your case, did she succeed?

 

 

 

 

 

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