Over a century ago, in the lawless waters of the North, the incredibly valuable but endangered fur seal was at the center of an international battle among pirates, governments, and corporate interests. Alex MacLean, the seal pirate who inspired Jack London’s Sea Wolf, poached indiscriminately as the US government seized Canadian vessels, Great Britain positioned warships towards the west, and conservationist president Teddy Roosevelt considered exterminating the entire species as his only option. Enter artist and naturalist Henry Wood Elliott, who undertook a courageous, seemingly unwinnable fight to defeat the pirates and save the seals.
Revealing the unlikely and tumultuous origins of the conservation movement, ROAR OF THE SEA is swashbuckling narrative nonfiction set in the treacherous Bering Sea. Punctuated by a pair of unique protagonists, ROAR OF THE SEA pits a notorious seal pirate against an unlikely whistleblower who exposed corruption and brokered a solution that set the course for modern wildlife protections. With extinction now threatening one million species, this previously untold history delivers a brilliant allegory for our times, showing how a lone activist occupying the margins can prevail against government and corporate interests.
February 2022 release from West Margin Press…watch for the cover reveal!