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The Blue Edge
By Carlos Eyles,
360 pages,
5-1/2x8-1/2 inches, paperback, 16 B&W photos
ISBN 1-881652-27-0
$17.95
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click here
In this near mystical journey, the author returns to the once bountiful Sea of Cortez he explored as a free diver over thirty years ago. Finding it lacking, he continues on to a distant archipelago, one rumored to hold great fish and sharks by the thousands, soaring manta rays, and breaching whales. Here on the ocean's edge, he takes the reader on breath-hold dives into an extremely dangerous yet magical realm.
About the Author
Carlos Eyles became deeply connected to the ocean world as a child growing up on the beaches of Hawaii. His life, as first a free diving big game spearfisherman and now as an underwater photographer, has covered much of the planet's oceans and seas-a lifetime journey, which has also paralleled the decline of the ocean's great wealth. He has written eight books and countless articles about his ocean experiences. His underwater photographs are found in major books and publications worldwide. He recently returned to Hawaii to live and teach free diving.
Link to the author's website:
www.carloseyles.com
From the Foreword
The Blue Edge invites the reader into Carlos's almost mystical interaction with the ocean's inhabitants. His encounters are extraordinary...his insights come from the heart. He takes us to the very soul of the natural world.
David Smith
Reviews
"A masterful story by Carlos Eyles who reveals in an absorbing tale the plight of the seas. Beautifully written with fascinating depictions of sea life. As important a book as Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us."
Clive Cussler, best-selling author; founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) dedicated to the discovery and preservation of historic shipwrecks
"Readers are treated to spine-tingling shark encounters, manta flights of fancy, and underwater hunting struggles contrasting with moments of deep intimacy with the ocean. Carlos is an underwater guru!"
Dale Sheckler, Publisher, California Diving News
"...a dramatic, day-by-day account of two expeditions (over a total of 65 days) to magical San Benedicto Island, off the tip of Baja California. This incredible ocean oasis is the vortex of heart-pounding encounters with masses of schooling hammerheads, galapagos sharks, manta rays, whales and more. Accompanying Eyles and his companions on exquisite breath-hold dives with these legendary creatures, gives insight into the daily joys, frustrations and downright awe that such a journey into nature can bring. And with it, lessons Eyles learned about the ways of the ocean and its inhabitants"
Jim Walker, Skin Diver Magazine
"While tanks full of scientifically calculated gas mixes can take a diver to the edge of technical diving limits, packing air into those God-given doubles inside the chest can take a diver to the edge of human endurance. Carlos Eyles established his free-diving credentials decades ago in The Last of the Blue Water Hunters. In The Blue Edge, he returns to the Sea of Cortez after more than 30 years only to find the once bountiful waters greatly depleted of the marine life they once had held. He continues on to a distant archipelago to find abundant sharks, soaring Mantas and breaching whales
.Breath-hold diving internalizes the underwater experience, and Eyles draws on this perspective to explore the soul of nature."
The International Technical Diving Magazine
"After a multi-year layoff from writing, Carlos Eyles returns with a book chronicling his life and his struggle to stay connected to an ocean and a lifestyle he bonded with as a young child growing up in Hawaii. Focusing on a trip to photograph sharks in the Revilligigedos Islands, Eyles weaves tales of his life, trials, and tribulations into the narrative.
Staving off aggressive sharks with only a camera, stuck in Baja when another spearfisherman refuses to go home, and waking up paralyzed on a remote Fijian island are some of the highlights. His deep need to stay in the ocean costs him marriages, jobs, and friends, but liberates him from a lifestyle that focused on material needs.
In the end the book is an exploration of what Samuel Johnson wrote in 1769: "It matters not how a man dies but how he lives."
Spearfishing Magazine
Want more of Carlos Eyles?
Carlos Eyles, author, photographer, adventurer completed a 30-day NOAA expedition to the northwest islands in the Hawaiian chain. This remote wilderness was being studied and cataloged by NOAA and Carlos served as their staff writer. His daily journals are posted on the following website:
http://www.hawaiianatolls.org/research/NOWRAMP2002/journals/index.php
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