cover image World Ocean Census: A Global Survey of Marine Life

World Ocean Census: A Global Survey of Marine Life

Darlene Trew Crist, Gail Scowcroft, James M. Harding, Jr.. Firefly Books, $40 (256pp) ISBN 978-1-55407-434-1

As industrial fishing fleets have mined the seas of life before scientists get a chance to study it, an international consortium of scientists, funded by their governments, began a collaborative effort in 2000 to catalog every organism living in the global ocean. Scientists voyaged to regions that had never been studied before, such as the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic, where unique hydrothermal vent communities were found, while others researched the human history of marine resource management to get an idea of pre-industrial ocean life (using not just archeological data and fishing records but old restaurant menus and postcards). Glorious photographs, full of amazing forms and colors, capture many creatures readers will find entirely unfamiliar, as well as the cutting-edge technology used to uncover them. Science writer Crist, along with scientists Scowcroft and Harding, have produced a highly readable text with stunning photos that should fully engage the public imagination, a fitting and accessible prelude to the full scientific report, due in 2010.