In Deep Blue, a YA fantasy, mermaids don’t trust humans, whom they call terragoggs, or simply goggs. There is even a group that fights the terragoggs called the Praedatori.
“We cut nets and long line hooks. We set up field hospitals for the turtles, dugongs, sea lions, and dolphins injured by them. We jam propellers, tangle anchors, puncture pontoons– whatever we need to do to preserve aquatic life.” -The Leader of the Praedatori
“Mfeme plunders the sea for any creature of value.”
Mfeme is a notorious terragogg, a fisherman who engages in bottom trawling and long line fishing.
“I joined the Praedatori because I love the seas, and their creatures, more than my own life,” he said quietly. “Bad things are happening. Oceans are being destroyed by the goggs.”
Although the book is fantasy, the saddest thing is that the plundering of the ocean’s resources is a real thing. Fish stocks worldwide are in danger of collapse because of overfishing and habitat degredation.
But it isn’t just recent books that call attention to this plight.
“The barbarous greed of fishermen will one day not far removed cause the disappearance of the last whale from the sea.” -From Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
If Jules Verne could predict the problem of overfishing when he published his novel in 1849, why do we still pretend to be suprised?
Kallen Kentner ·
TRULY,
Jennifer Donnelly has done a really good job telling the readers about the danger humans pose to aquatic life through the medium of her books:
Deep Blue
Rogue Wave
Dark Tide
Fair Winds
I haven’t picked up Rogue Wave or any of the sequels. Does it still continue this theme?