The oceans sing to us, with promises of adventure, wonder, the unknown. And so humans set out to discover what is under the waves. Check out these recent nonfiction books about the history and present of deep sea exploration, some of the awe inspiring things found there, and the compulsion to make a profit.
The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey
Casey tackles the history, present, and potential futures of efforts to explore the deep sea, the area below 600 feet where light barely reaches, weaving together interviews with marine scientists, inventors, and her own deep-sea dive experience, including in a state-of-the-art crewed submersible. Casey has a storied history writing about oceans, from The Devil’s Teeth (sharks), to The Wave (mega waves, surfers), to Voices in the Ocean (dolphins).
The Deepest Map: The High-stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans by Laura Trethewey
The deep sea is one of the last truly unknown frontiers, but the race is on to know more as scientists, businesspeople, and adventurers strive to map the world’s entire seafloor by 2030. Trethewey brings the reader up to speed, relating the history of ocean mapping and available methods. She highlights the knowledge gained, the current mapping push, and conservation efforts, as well possible consequences including the destructive nature of commercial deep sea mining.
The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths by Brad Fox
In the late 1920s, inventor Otis Barton designed a ball-shaped submersible that could descend thousands of feet into the ocean. And from 1930-1934 Barton and naturalist William Beebe did just that, diving off Nonsuch Island in Bermuda and cataloging the creatures they saw via phone to scientist Gloria Hollister. Fox weaves a tale of these exploits and the efforts to catalog the mysterious depths. Beebe commissioned drawings of these remarkable creatures, many of which Fox includes here.
Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs
After an encounter with a beached whale on an Australian beach, and a discussion with the wildlife officer there to euthanize the animal, Giggs embarked on an effort to chronicle what we know – and don’t know – about whales and their place in the world. The result was this impassioned work, a deep dive into different whale species, from their biology to their songs to their communities. And, at the same time, an effort to understand the impact humans have had on whales, from 19th century whaling, to plastic in the oceans and climate change.
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
Mixing memoir and science writing, Imbler writes about ten marine creatures and the adaptations they’ve made to survive in extreme conditions, while drawing connections to their own life experiences as a queer, mixed race author. How does the yeti crab survive living on thermal vents 7,000 feet under the water? How do we create the community and care that we seek?
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson
It turns out eels are fairly mysterious creatures: no one knows how they mate or give birth, for example, or why they swim to saltwater at the end of their lives, and for much of human history we didn’t know if they were fish or something else. Mixing memoir and science, Svensson, who grew up fishing for eels with his father in Sweden, digs into history, modern marine biology, and literature to chart our enduring fascination with the eel, in a narrative which ultimately “also serves as a mediation on consciousness, faith, time, light and darkness, and life and death,” according to Kirkus Reviews.
~ posted by Andrea G.
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