From the Seashore to the Seafloor An Illustrated Tour of Sandy Beaches, Kelp Forests, Coral Reefs, and Life in the Ocean’s Depths

About this book

An octopus expert and celebrated artist offer a deep dive to meet the enchanting inhabitants of the world's marine ecosystems.

Have you ever walked along the beach and wondered what kind of creatures can be found beneath the waves? Have you pictured what it would be like to see the ocean not from the shore, but from its depths? These questions drive Janet Voight, an expert on molluscs who has explored the seas in the submersible Alvin that can dive some 14,000 feet below the water's surface. In this book, she partners with artist Peggy Macnamara to invite readers to share her undersea journeys of discovery.

With accessible scientific description, Voight introduces the animals that inhabit rocky and sandy shores, explains the fragility of coral reefs, and honours the extraordinary creatures that must search for food in the ocean's depths, where light and heat are rare. These fascinating insights are accompanied by Macnamara's stunning watercolours, illuminating these ecosystems and other scenes from Voight's research. Together, they show connections between life at every depth – and warn of the threats these beguiling places and their eccentric denizens face.

Contents

Map
Foreword by David Quammen
Introductions by Janet Voight and Peggy Macnamara

1 Sandy Shores
2 Rocky Shores
3 Gulf of California
4 Northeast Pacific
5 Kelp Forest
6 Coral Reefs
7 Indo-West Pacific
8 Research Cruise Experience
9 Open Ocean
10 Subsea Vehicles
11 Gulf of Mexico
12 Midwater Depths
13 Deep Scattering Layer
14 Hydrothermal Vents
15 Food Falls
16 Deep-Sea Floor

Epilogue
Acknowledgments

Customer Reviews

Biography

Janet Voight is the Women's Board Associate Curator for Invertebrate Zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Peggy Macnamara is an artist-in-residence at the Field Museum and an adjunct associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.