“AN ISLAND is not just sand that sits in a body of water,” declares one island resident. “It is a land in union with the seas around it.” It was precisely this life-force - of the land, its inhabitants, and the constant cadence of the sea - that staff writers H. Robert Morrison and Christine Eckstrom Lee, along with staff photographer David Alan Harvey, found so com¬pelling about America’s Atlantic isles.
During months of travel, the authors and the photographer visited nearly seventy islands from Canada to Florida, islands both large and small. They came to learn that it “takes a special kind of person to be an islander. ” It requires an independence coupled with a sense of cooperation to endure storms, sometimes harsh terrain, and - above all - isolation.
Bob, Chris, and Dave visited islands that were part of the New World’s first frontier: Grand Manan off the coast of New Brunswick ... tiny Gardiners Island, domain of one family for nearly 350 years ... historic Fort George in Florida. In the course of their travels, they sailed at dawn with lobstermen to the rich fishing grounds in the Bay of Fundy ... thrilled to an exciting finish in the America’s Cup sailboat races ... met the proud residents of Daufuskie Island, who still preserve their ancestors’ timeless and unhurried way of life.
The authors learned that some fifty million people live within fifty miles of the Atlantic coast, and that with this proximity comes a dilemma: America’s coastal isles face increased development as the number of island residents and visitors continues to grow. As a result, wildlife habitat is threatened; in some cases, the very existence of the islands is in peril. The authors talked with wildlife biologists and marine geologists to learn about the effects of man - and those of nature - on these fragile islescapes.
America’s Atlantic Isles presents the extraordinary variety of the island worlds along our eastern shore: from sea islands studded with moss-draped live oaks to the glittering Atlantic City casinos of Absecon Island; from Maine isles where rocky cliffs plunge into chill gray seas to Florida’s subtropical keys, which seem to float in azure waters. More than 150 color photo¬graphs bring to life the beauty and vitality of the islands, providing a glimpse that “gives us a perspective on our everyday lives ashore. ”
Gulls wheeling overhead, an angler surf-casts at dawn on a beach near Nags Head, in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. This slender barrier chain stretches for some 180 miles. Rich in scenery and wildlife, the Banks yearly lure millions of fishermen, beachcombers, and bird-watchers.