Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth

Description:

A seagoing scientist explores how life thrives in one of the most mysterious environments on Earth.

The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the seafloor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to anglerfish with bioluminescent lures that draw prey into their toothy mouths. This book takes readers inside the peculiar world of seagoing scientists, who are providing tantalising new insights into how the animals of the open ocean solve the problems of their existence.

Sönke Johnsen vividly describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, including gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, the need to catch food without becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities. He interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.

This book presents the sea and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before and reminds us that the rules of survival in the open ocean, though they may seem strange to us, are the primary rules of life on Earth.