36 pages • 1 hour read
Dan SantatA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and animal cruelty.
Dan Santat is a prolific children’s author and illustrator who writes and illustrates his graphic novels and children’s stories. He has authored over 100 books to date and became a Caldecott Medalist for his children’s novel The Adventures of Beekle: The Imaginary Friend (2014) in 2015. His other notable works include the middle grade graphic memoir A First Time for Everything (2023), which won a National Book Award, and After the Fall (2017), a children’s book and New York Times number-one bestseller. He also collaborates with other artists, with his artwork featured in Lisa Yee’s The Misfits, Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver’s Detective Duck, and Dav Pilkey’s Ricky Ricotta (“Dan Santat.” Macmillan Publishers).
Santat grew up with a passion for illustration and decided to pursue it as a career in adulthood, despite his parents’ expectation that he become a doctor. His fiction and nonfiction works cover a wide range of topics and include genres from realism to science fiction and fantasy. The Aquanaut took Santat 10 years to complete from start to finish and evolved along the way. He begins the graphic novel with a photo dedication to his father who died of cancer while he was writing it. As a result, much of the novel’s plot, as well as its central theme of The Courage to Face Fears (especially concerning moving on from loss), is driven by this loss. Since the author and his father enjoyed the beach together, the novel’s ocean setting further pays homage to the person he loved. Santat was also inspired by the 20th-century French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, who led several important ocean expeditions and helped invent the Aqua-Lung for scuba diving. Like much of Santat’s work, The Aquanaut incorporates adventure, science, and how experiences of adolescence shape who people become.
The health of the oceans is integral to the sustainability of diverse biodiversity and the livelihoods of people across the globe. However, even though the oceans are important in maintaining Earth’s climate and sustaining life on land and in water, factors including pollution, overfishing, climate change, habitat destruction, and invasive species threaten it. Marine conservation refers to “the protection and preservation and its biodiversity” and focuses on managing human actions that affect the oceans and marine life, including fishing, shipping, and tourism (Petrina, Darrah. “What Is Marine Conservation?” GVI USA, 9 May 2023). The human impact on oceans is difficult to quantify in its entirety, but it is estimated that 11,000 tons of plastic reach the ocean each year. Additionally, chemical waste and other forms of disposal pollute the waters, change the chemical composition of the oceans, and threaten the existence of marine life. In The Aquanaut, marine characters notice the ways humans negatively impact marine ecosystems and life. For example, Sodapop the crab notices an influx of dumped human garbage, which pollutes and litters his natural environment.
Many marine conservations exist globally, and prominent American organizations include Oceana, Ocean Conservancy, and The Ocean Project. While people previously incorrectly thought the ocean was “limitless” and immune to negative human impacts, scientists’ research studies and sheds light on the devastation that human exploitation has created on the Earth’s largest ecosystem; as the Marine Conservation Institute highlights, “no area in [the ocean] has been left untouched” (“Why Protect the Ocean?” Marine Conservation Institute). To ensure a sustainable future and the preservation of marine ecosystems, stronger protections are necessary. Marine conservation organizations, in particular, work to create protected areas for marine life, fight for the creation of laws and policies in favor of marine conservation, and call out private entities that break these laws. The United States has over 1,000 marine protected areas, which include both coastal and inland regions. Many of these areas are protected in collaboration with Indigenous groups who protect sacred land, and research takes place within these areas to examine how marine life is adapting to climate change and pollution, informing more effective ways to protect marine life moving forward. This work is integral, especially as the amount of pollution entering the ocean continues to increase rather than decrease.
Rescue, rehabilitation, and release are a critical part of marine conservation. Organizations like the Marine Mammal Center and the National Marine Life Center rehabilitate, treat, and release sick, injured, distressed, or orphaned marine life before the animals can be safely released back into their natural habitats. Rescue, rehabilitation, and release initiatives not only care for animals such as whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea turtles but also facilitate education and advance scientific research on marine life health and conservation. In The Aquanaut, Uncle Paul and Sophia’s father, Michel, are marine biologists researching giant squid. While Paul is attuned to marine conservation efforts, Mr. Lula exploits and manipulates Paul’s research at Aqualand for his selfish financial gain. Notably, Paul faces pressure to allow Aqualand to become more exploitative— including an orca show and dolphin petting zoo—due to investors who want an amusement park, not marine conservation. Additionally, the aquanaut notices that animals at Aqualand are distressed and scared, which mirrors the behavior of animals living in captivity, which often display symptoms of depression and engage in repetitive motions or harmful behaviors. In captivity, animals cannot roam freely, hunt, dive deep, and choose a social group as they would in the wild and are often used as entertainers at attractions like SeaWorld. Additionally, animals have higher mortality rates in captivity compared to the wild (Danovich, Tove. “Our Love of Orcas Is Making Them Miserable.” Vox, 3 Dec. 2023). Documentaries like Blackfish (2013) have examined the ethics and ramifications of keeping orcas in captivity at marine theme parks and aquariums. In 2016, SeaWorld ended its captive breeding program for orcas, and newly built parks will now be “whale-free” (“Our Love of Orcas”) Marine parks today increasingly struggle for relevance due to media scrutiny after deaths and rising public support of marine mammals only being in captivity if there are true educational or scientific benefits. Despite positive steps, the captive display industry remains and impacts wild marine life populations.