Immerse yourself in this beautiful, absorbing guide to the marine world.

Earth owes its identity as the blue planet to the vast oceans of water that cover almost 70 per cent of its surface. Home to an abundance of marine life and vital in regulating Earth’s climate, the oceans are also the backdrop to daring exploits of seafaring and to colourful mythological tales. Combining arresting photography, rich illustrations, and engaging, expertly written text, The Ocean Book showcases the animals and plants, physical geography, and captivating human stories of the world’s oceans.

Whether you’re interested in blue whales, penguins, coral reefs, whirlpools, or the golden age of pirates, this is the perfect exploration of the ocean realm.

A Best Book of 2020: The Washington Post * NPR * Chicago Tribune * Smithsonian A "remarkable" (Los Angeles Times), "seductive" (The Wall Street Journal) debut from the new cohost of Radiolab, Why Fish Don't Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and--possibly--even murder. "At one point, Miller dives into the ocean into a school of fish...comes up for air, and realizes she's in love. That's how I felt: Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten." --The New York Times Book Review David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake--which sent more than a thousand discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life's work was shattered. Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish that he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool--a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet. Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don't Exist is a wondrous fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.

A transporting exploration of the deep sea, and how our planet’s strangest, most ancient and astonishing creatures have urgent relevance to cutting-edge science today.

Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms the size and shape of cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest and most diverse organisms on Earth, seeming to bend the rules of land-based biology. Although sometimes unseen in the deep, these incredible spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defence.

Marine ecologist Dr Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from the Caribbean to Indonesia, to uncover the incredible underwater ‘superpowers’ of spineless creatures: we meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars who garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in perfect balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering and energy innovations of these wondrous creatures hold ever more important secrets to our own survival.

The Ocean’s Menagerie is a tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman’s passionate connection to an adventurous career in science and a call to arms to protect the world’s most ancient ecosystems.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

In November 2005, Washington's iconic killer whales, known as Southern Resident orcas, were placed on the endangered species list. It was a victory long overdue for a fragile population of fewer than one hundred whales. Author and certified marine naturalist Sandra Pollard traces the story and destinies of the many Southern Resident orcas captured for commercial purposes in or near the Puget Sound between 1964 and 1976. During this time, these highly intelligent members of the dolphin family lost nearly one-third of their population. Drawing on original archive material, this important volume outlines the history of orca captivity while also recounting the harrowing struggle--and ultimate triumph--for the Puget Sound orcas' freedom.

Take a fascinating trip beneath the waves to see such vast and fearsome creatures as the giant squid, the giant octopus, the grotesque coelacanth, and the venomous and tentacled Portuguese man-of-war, as well as rays, sharks, and whales, all captured in stunning full-color photographs.

Dive deep into the world of sharks, the most fascinating and misunderstood marine animals on the planet, in this stunning new edition of The Shark Handbook, written by Shark Week expert, Dr. Greg Skomal. Did you know that a whale shark's spots are as unique as a fingerprint? Or that sharks can go into a trance when flipped upside down? Or that the Megallodon's mouth was 6 feet across? With The Shark Handbook, jump into brand new facts about these fierce sea creatures! Explore all of the orders of sharks, such as: - Ground sharks - Great white sharks - Mackerel sharks - Carpet sharks - and more! Learn about over 400 profiles of every shark in existence, from the first sharks living about 445 million years ago to the ones lurking in the ocean deep today. Starring spectacular, full-color photography that makes these jaw-dropping sharks come to life, this is the perfect gift for the shark enthusiast in your life. Dr. Greg Skomal, PhD is an experienced aquarist and Marine Fisheries Biologist at Martha's Vineyard Fisheries, Division of Marine Fisheries, Massachusetts. He's been keeping saltwater aquariums since childhood and has shared his extensive knowledge with viewers of National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, NBC's Today, and other media.