In this memoir, a scuba-mask view of the world below the waves, Collet recounts her adventures in studying whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals under a variety of conditions, some of them full of peril. That peril, however, concerns all: most of the species she has studied, she warns, are in grave danger, not least because of the all-but-unimpeded use of pelagic trawl nets by commercial deep-sea fishing fleets, which kill five to ten thousand dolphins a year in the Bay of Biscay alone. With their steady disappearance, marine ecosystems begin to unravel, and Collet warns urgently that action must be taken now if the sea--and, by extension, the planet--is to be brought back to health, its terrifying residents included. --Gregory McNamee

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Anne Collet has ridden the tail of a white whale - for ten seconds off the coast of Argentina. She has taken children diving in the Azores to see dolphins and led teenagers on ocean voyages. And she has heard the song of beluga whales in the Arctic Ocean. In Swimming with Giants, Collet describes the power and majesty of being close to some of nature's most magnificent creatures. Combining science with a sense of adventure, she conveys the sheer excitement of her work with marine mammals, from the sublime gaze of a whale's eye to the race to save animals harmed by pelagic drift nets or toxic spills. A contemporary ecohero in the tradition of Jacques Cousteau, Collet is an inspiration not only for the many who have accompanied her on her research trips, but also for those who will see in her journey a call to follow their own dreams.