Welcome to Curio Bay

There is a stretch of land along the southernmost coast of the Southern Island of New Zealand known as Curio Bay. I visited about five years ago in search of the Hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin (seen above). And here, at long last, is a story that emerged from that visit, published in Kelp Journal. Thanks…

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Where Oceans Hide Their Dead: Now on Audible.com

At last, it’s ready… on Audible.com.https://adbl.co/2ZINs6j You can listen to a sample here: Ashland Creek Press · Where Oceans Hide Their Dead (sample) Read by yours truly, warts and all. The end result is 8 hours and change long but I lost count of how many hours I spent recording and re-recording these chapters. Partly…

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“Penguins are in trouble”

This from a sobering research report published last week by some of the world’s leading experts on penguins. The report notes that “more than half of the world’s 18 penguin species are declining.” The three species most in danger are: African penguin Galápagos penguin Yellow-eyed penguin (seen below in New Zealand) The report notes that…

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The Tourist Trail is now an audiobook

Let me just that I have newfound respect for those who create audiobooks, because after a month of starts and stops and re-recordings I’m happy to announce the audiobook for The Tourist Trail. It’s available on Audible and comes in at just over 7 hours, which by no means reflects how many hours went into…

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Did you happen to notice the new Tourist Trail cover?

The cover of the first edition of The Tourist Trail features a landscape photograph of the Magellanic penguin colony along the shores of Argentina, the precise location where the book begins. It was a photograph I had taken and I thought it would make a nice cover. And it did, but it didn’t make a…

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And now some great news for Magellanic penguins

The Tourist Trail takes place on the site of the world’s largest Magellanic penguin colony and, though the book is fiction, the colony is very much real. It is located on the coast of Punta Tombo, Argentina. And this coastal region has long been heavily fished, which means penguins have for decades been caught up in…

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Among Animals — A collection of stories that everyone should read

I’m biased, of course. I’m the editor. But I’m also a reader and I’ve consistently been frustrated over the years by the lack of novels and short stories that truly “get” the complex (and often violent) relationships between humans and animals. I’m immensely proud of this book. If you’re a member of the media or…

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Bycatch is destroying seabird populations — and that includes penguins

A recent study reported on in the New York Times found that 400,000 seabirds are getting killed each year by gillnets — those long nets used by fishing vessels. And you can add roughly 160,000 additional seabirds that are hooked by longlines. In short, modern fishing practices are destroying the oceans and its creatures. From…

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Climate change, not tourism, is hurting chinstrap penguins

Tourism and its impact on endangered species is, not surprisingly, one of the themes of The Tourist Trail. It’s not a simple issue. In the case of the Magellanic penguin colony at Punta Tombo, more than 100,000 tourists now visit the site annually, which can (and sometimes does) overwhelm the birds. But the fact that so…

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Thinking about visiting Patagonia?

You should read this travel article about Bahia Bustamante. Bahia Bustamante is a sprawling private ranch south of Punta Tombo, the site of the world’s largest Magellanic penguin colony. The article nicely captures the environment and its rich diversity of animal life — armadillos, guanacos and even steamer ducks. Here’s a picture of a pair…