The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) presents a free Zoom webinar featuring brothers Jacob Seigel Brielle and Isaac Seigel-Boettner discussing their book “Island Visions,” about the magical world of the Channel Islands, 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18. Registration is required at https://sbmm.org/santa-barbara-event/; donations welcome.

The Channel Islands, just off the Santa Barbata coast, are home to tiny island foxes found nowhere else on the planet, huge blue whales with hearts the size of cars, and towering underwater forests of kelp. Add to that ancient redwood-canoe builders, land-hungry Spanish explorers, curious scientists, and enterprising urchin divers in search of a new type of gold.

The islands are full of legends and natural beauty, inviting exploration of many kinds and from many angles — stories, poetry, science, geology and photography.

Inspired by a middle school trip to the islands, the Santa Barbara-raised brothers Seigel Brielle and Seigel-Boettner,set out to share the knowledge of experts through their book “Island Visions.”

At the SBMM event, the siblings will tell the story of how the “Island Visions” project and “untextbook,” as they call it, about the Channel Islands came to be. They will share stories told through conversations, photography, and artwork from their book, which was a seven-year effort involving 40 scientists, fishermen, and other maritime and Channel Islands experts.

“Island Visions” is written for all ages but aims to introduce children to their local environment and the importance of conservation. The book shares diverse voices from the past, present, and future that bring to life the importance of this tiny island chain on both a local and a global level.

Starting with the geography and geology of the islands and how they came to be, the book looks at the ocean from different perspectives, then moves on to the history of people on the islands and their impact on the wildlife and health of the region now and in the future. Home to humans for 10,000 years, the Channel Islands serve as a model for how humans can protect and conserve the planet’s most vulnerable spaces.

The 386-page hardback edition of “Island Visions” is jointly published by the authors’ Pedal Born Pictures, Santa Barbara Middle School, and Maps.com. It is available for purchase at SBMM’s
Museum Store, online at https://sbmm.org/sbmm-store/?product-page=2, or at Chaucer’s Books and Mollusk Surf Shop in Santa Barbara.

The event is sponsored by Marie L. Morrisroe.