The Pismo Calamity [Paperback]

Pismo Beach hadn't seen much controversy in years, but a few weeks before the annual Clam Festival the rumors began. Reports of curious events in the ocean surface at the town's favorite watering hole, Harry's Night Club and Beach Bar, where regular patron Dugan Byrnes takes interest. Seeing a fishing boat sailing backwards sets his investigation in motion, and reveals a series of peculiar incidents and unusual suspects that includes federal security agents, average citizens, the mob and environmental scientists. When his research attracts the interest of the feds, and moves underwater at the Cal Poly Pier in Avila Beach, the real source of the strange marine episodes is revealed in dramatic fashion. Byrnes' group of volunteers, the Pismo Eight, find themselves committed to a vital mission in their efforts to save their precious coastal habitat from further damage. The combined forces of the state and national authorities, agribusiness and the nuclear power industry seem at first overwhelming. But then they meet Edna, genetic anomaly and the world's most powerful bivalve, and learn that their cause is not in vain. The Pismo Calamity is a whimsical suspense story with a deadly serious theme.