John Janovy had two dreams: to see a live, wild whale and to explore the mythical place John Steinbeck wrote about in his Log from the Sea of Cortez. One day Janovy caught a plane to Baja California in pursuit of both dreams. There, in an unfamiliar and magical landscape, in the company of fellow biologists and their students, he recaptured the sense of innocent wonder that had led him to become a biologist in the first place. Far from the exploitive world of big science, he was able to see the living world with fresh eyes and to draw some remarkable conclusions about where humanity is headed and where we are taking the rest of our planet. Time Magazine once wrote of Janovy: "He never fails to ask the right questions." In this remarkable book, he answers some of them. Vermilion Sea: A Naturalist's Journey in Baja California, paints an unforgettable portrait of a strange land and reveals the poetry in a scientist's view of the world.