Wet and Salty. A Lifelong Journey Seeking Coral Conservation and Resilience.

By Rodney V Salm

Rodney Salm takes us on a 55-year journey that began as a boy in Moçambique through a life of extreme adventure spent in and under the ocean in polar regions and tropical seas, but principally among coral reefs in far-flung places. He chronicles his transition from plundering seas to conserving their precious bounty.

In those early years when there were no rules and the resulting freedom liberating, Rod drew heavily on self-reliance built from camping in the bush and along beaches. He learned to live off the sea, often sharing his speared fishes with sharks that harassed him as he hunted for his next meal.

During the first decades of his career, Rod worked alone under the seas and across deserts in foreign lands, learning his limits, encountering danger, and checking off another of his nine lives. This lifestyle exposed him to adventure and discovery, different people and beliefs systems, and engaging legends. In his own words: “I fell inextricably in love with the underwater world, especially corals, and came to realise that the damage done to them by humans around the world is not necessarily fatal or final. Coral reefs are vital living organisms, well able to recover from most harm humans and the climate can do to them. They just need to be given the chance.” That theme lies at the core of the enthusiasm and messages Rod shares in this book.

Crammed with adventure, pioneering conservation achievements, and field science, Rod chronicles the many challenges that often plagued but never deterred him. Even as heat stress resulting from global warming caused mass coral bleaching and mortality and confounded reef managers and scientists, he led the charge to find ways to address the issue. Again, in his own words: “In 1989 Oman was where the seed of reef resilience was planted in my mind. In 1998 Kenya and Seychelles were where it was watered. And in 1999 it germinated in Palau.” The result was adoption of resilience as an organising principle for coral reef conservation, first in Palau and over time around the world.

The book concludes with a firsthand account of Rod’s development of a groundbreaking method for rapid assessment and enhancement of coral health and resilience to address the challenges of climate change.

Combining vivid storytelling with practical insights, the book aims to inspire scientists, students, and nature enthusiasts—showing that science can be thrilling, adventurous, and impactful. It leaves us optimistic that we can take action to safeguard coral communities and enhance their resilience to global change.

To order the book, please check with your local bookstore, or online at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

About the Author

Rodney V Salm

Although now officially retired, I continue to pursue practical methods for the application of resilience principles to coral conservation. I am a member of the scientific advisory board of the Coral Triangle Center and emeritus adviser to The Nature Conservancy Micronesia Marine Program. In recent years I led a coral health and resilience assessment for African Parks in the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique and continue to provide training to the Coral Triangle Center team and partners in rapid coral health and resilience assessments.