Red Sky In The Morning

Sonja Swift looks to whales, weather and the life of the ocean to ask how humans understand, use and remain connected to marine worlds.

Red Sky in the Morning moves between marine science and memoir while drawing on Indigenous knowledge and environmental history. Swift considers the ocean at very different scales, from whales and industrial whaling to plankton, changing weather and the processes that hold marine ecosystems together.

The book is also concerned with what happens when the sea is treated primarily as a resource. Stories of exploitation, climate change and ecological disruption sit beside moments of observation and personal experience, creating a wider account of the relationships people have built with water and marine life.

Swift writes for readers of literary nature writing as well as those interested in ocean science, conservation and climate. The result is an examination of the sea as habitat, history and lived presence, and of the responsibilities that follow from paying closer attention to it.