You went to find out how the Sea of Cortez had changed over the years. What did you expect to find?

I expected the typical plot -- you go back to a place, it's ruined, everyone laments it, and you write something that hopefully draws people's attention to the fact that it's all dead. But of course what we found was way more complicated.

I found out that I didn't want to write the environmental book. I don't think there are simple answers, and I don't respect much of what's been written about the area so far; I think it's given a false impression. People go down there with an agenda and they never learn to see what's in front of their eyes. It's never black and white.

John Steinbeck, writing on his trip, shed some of his own personality. He was an activist; he'd just written "The Grapes of Wrath." Nowadays, people assume "The Log" is really Steinbeck's book, but it was really Steinbeck and Ricketts together, and even more, it's Steinbeck trying on his friend's philosophies and personality and writing through Ricketts -- and using a lot of Ricketts' own words. What he was trying on was, "What is it like not to be judgmental, to be scientific and not judge and not prescribe?" And that was the hardest thing we struggled with, too -- because we wanted to judge and prescribe and come back with a book about what is wrong with Sea of Cortez.

We found out it wasn't that simple -- that if we kept thinking that way, weren't going to see what was there, and we certainly weren't going to understand Steinbeck and Ricketts' trip, which was about not judging and about seeing the world in a different way.

So what did you see?

We came back with a mixed picture. Regardless of what people say about it being a dead sea or a dying sea, there is still more life there than 99 percent of people realize. It's mostly because they're looking at more charismatic species, the top predators, and they're not looking at the whole foundation for all that -- the invertebrates.

I informally interviewed many Mexican fishermen who said the fishing hadn't necessarily gotten worse; and we were seeing a lot of life, especially invertebrate life. I was also hearing stories from researchers and fishermen that certain fish species were coming back or that the birds had not taken a hit.

It's not that there hasn't been damage. There are places like the northern gulf where there's been incredible habitat change. But I guess I take exception with the environmentalists who think they'll get more attention by saying the sea is already dead. It's dead in some places, but there's incredible richness elsewhere. And mostly we don't know.

You were shadowing Steinbeck and Ricketts for the whole trip. Did it ever feel constraining?

We never felt frustrated. We entered into this story and it gave us a structure and a focus. I think if we hadn't been following in someone's footsteps, then halfway through the trip, when the sailing part stopped working and our captain lost it, we might have said, "Shall we just go home?" But we had a path to follow, and the longer we followed it, the better the trip got.

It gave us a framework in what was otherwise a confusing trip. What we were seeing was so different from what we'd expected.

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