The Seabird Trials: How a Scientist Took Big Oil to Court and Won

Through lyrical storytelling and vivid science writing, The Seabird Trials reveals the fragility and wonder of seabird life, the great cost of oil dependence and—at a time when scientists are increasingly questioned and silenced—the enduring importance of evidence and truth.

In the aftermath of one of the deadliest oil spills in the Pacific, two friends—one Canadian, one American and both seabird biologists—were called up as expert witnesses to represent opposite sides of a landmark court case. Their friendship became one of the many casualties of the spill, along with 10,000 seabirds. The court battle charted the breakdown of the relationship between the two men through the tools of international corporate warfare: targeting vulnerabilities, manufacturing doubt, spinning false narratives of mitigation and—the ultimate weapon—discrediting the men’s love of the natural world. However, the final David and Goliath settlement of the 1986 Apex Houston spill set a new legal precedent for the global rights of nature. Orchestrated by the brilliant team of Canadian scientist Harry Carter and US prosecutor Valerie Lee, it was the first settlement in North American history to compensate for the destruction of wild animals, and it set the stage for the two-billion-dollar settlement of the Exxon Valdez spill that followed three years later. The settlement led to the establishment of a successful twenty-five-year experiment to encourage the surviving seabirds to return to their home nesting colony.

Through the evidence presented in heated court debates, we learn that seabirds, and by proxy the scientists that study them, are critical early warning systems of the impacts of oil spills and climate change. This timely book charts the historic failure of scientific and legal institutions to solve the problems they were set up to solve, as well as the success of people who love the natural world and will go to extraordinary lengths to protect it.

“Briony Penn’s The Seabird Trials has it all: heroes, villains, endangered seabirds, and the wild Pacific, all colliding in this expertly rendered courtroom drama.”

“The characters are larger than life, the short chapters are propulsive, and it’s refreshing to read about a case where heroic biologists vanquish corporate villains. Briony Penn brilliantly spins science, law, and history into a gripping yarn.”

“Briony Penn takes readers on a fascinating—and at times shocking—journey through the intertwined histories of the oil industry and the environmental movement, generously salted with insights into the lives of seabirds... Penn’s meticulously researched book is more than a David-and-Goliath story. It immerses readers in a broader narrative about the value we place on wild species at the critical crossroads of our times. In the end, The Seabird Trials is less a whodunit than a howdunit, leaving readers with an enduring question: What do we all do about it?”

“Briony Penn provides a masterful weaving together of elements to build an extraordinary story of environmental threat and conflict still with us today.”