Introduction: Mediterranean Stories Worth Telling

The Mediterranean is a sea of great natural value that underwent two major misadventures imperilling its integrity and balance. The first occurred 6 million years ago when the movements of the Earth’s crust temporarily blocked the sea’s connection with the ocean and caused its waters to evaporate, thus transforming it into a desert. The second is now, at the hands of humans who have prospered in the sea’s favourable environment for millennia, but have forgotten their allegiance with the cradle of their civilisation and the source of their well-being, and are now mindlessly destroying the sea’s naturalness and its rich assemblage of non-human inhabitants. Lack of care for nature in the Mediterranean is in large part due to a loss of awareness: how can humans feel concerned about a loss if they do not know what they are losing? By facilitating encounters with whales, dolphins, seals and rays in their habitat and on their terms, the goal of this book is to help build up in readers a collective commitment to secure a future for these species and the environment they share with them.