Publishers Weekly reviewed DRAWN TO THE DEEP, Julie Hauserman’s forthcoming biography of underwater photography and cave diving legend Wes Skiles.
“Journalist Hauserman does justice to the remarkable life of an explorer dubbed ‘Florida’s Jacques Cousteau.’…His pioneering underwater photography—which yielded breathtaking images of such natural wonders as blue holes, ‘stalactite-filled underwater Bahama caves’—was featured in National Geographic and on the Discovery Channel….Hauserman, who knew her subject personally, more than makes the case that Skiles’s innovation and daring added significantly to the understanding of a variety of aquatic worlds, and to the human impact on them.”
Skiles was an outspoken advocate and a self-taught expert on Florida’s freshwater springs. He butted heads with government officials and scientists concerning the subject of water movement through the “Swiss-cheese” karst rock of the underground aquifer in Florida. He never gave up on his quest to disprove the unchecked pumping and depletion of Florida’s groundwater.
Julie Hauserman, an award-winning journalist, is editor-in-chief of the Florida Phoenix. She is a former national commentator for NPR’s Weekend Edition and a former capital bureau reporter for the St. Petersburg Times.
