Life on Earth

The Deep

Photographic exploration of the abyss

Whoa! Boggling, bizarre and beautiful, the creatures evolving in the remote depths of the world’s oceans really are a trip. This book’s crisp close-ups allow astounding detail to pop out from the blackness: gorgeous mugshots of translucent octopi, technicolor jelly fish, and feathery pink iceworms (also seen in the previously-reviewed Ecology of the Deep Sea Vents). I missed the book when it came out last spring; I’m thrilled it didn’t pass me by any longer than it did. Seventy years ago, explorer William Beebe put it this way: “Anyone who has actually seen this universe will keep an image of it in his memory forever; for its isolation, its cosmic cold, its eternal obscurity — and above all, for the indescribable beauty of the denizens of those regions.” Amen.

— Steven Leckart

The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Claire Nouvian
2007, 256 pages
$30
Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:

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DEEP_scaly_dragonfish_EX-sm.jpg
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Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

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Coral Reef Guides

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EcoCosm/EcoSphere

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Natural Reef Aquariums

02/1/08

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