written by Bill Francois
review by JoAnn Hackos
No, it isn’t all about sardines. Bill Francois lifelong exploration of the life under the sea begins as a young boy and his first encounter with a sardine that he releases back into the open ocean. He dives in the Mediterranean, amazed by the incredible diversity of marine life.
Although the fragrances of the sea are inaccessible to humans, he learns that water is full of scents. Atlantic salmon can detect the smell of the stream where they were born. Water makes colors disappear. At great depths, the sea is black except for luminescent creatures. For sea creatures, color transmits information to kin and to predators. Migrating fish detect magnetic fields. Fish use sounds to communicate.
Francois tells us that the sea is a world full of sound. Whales talk to each other across immense distances. Drum fish croak, groupers grunt, shellfish snap shut, rock lobsters play the violin with their antennae. Dolphins transmit low pitched sounds humans cannot hear.
Sardines continue to amaze the author. Even in large numbers, they can be invisible. Their silvery skin makes them invisible from below. Millions of them swim in perfect synchrony. During the Cold War, the Swedish navy mistook a school of herring for a Russian submarine. Herring communicate by flatulence.
We learn that fish larvae lead difficult lives, even being eaten by their parents. But many fish parents, often the males, protect their eggs and watch over their young. Of course, Francois explains how octopuses reproduce, the female starving to death to protect her eggs. We learn how oysters make pearls and how prawns communicate.
What I enjoy most about this book is Bill Francois’ sense of humor. In a story about his video about a shark, a journalist portrayed the “mild-mannered sharks” as blood thirsty. One commentator mentioned the “… he let the shark go, and it could have come back … to eat innocent children.” Another retorted: “Sharks are endangered species, and children are not, so to me he’s hero.”
Francois’ last story describes a legendary event on the Seine, the river that moves through Paris. A friend alerted him to an extraordinary event: the allis shad had been spotted on the river. None had been seen since 1920 when the river became too dirty and congested. He went out to witness their return. They are immense sardines that had traveled from the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, returning after a hundred years.
Eloquence of the Sardine is a joy to read. Please don’t miss it.