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A sea-going scientist explores how ocean life thrives in one of the most mysterious environments on Earth
The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the sea floor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to angler fish with bioluminescent lures to draw prey into their toothy mouths. Into the Great Wide Ocean takes readers inside the peculiar world of the sea-going scientists who are providing tantalizing new insights into how the animals of the open ocean solve the problems of their existence.
Sönke Johnsen vividly describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, such as gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, catching food while not becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities. He interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.
Into the Great Wide Ocean presents the sea and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before and reminds us that the rules of survival in the open ocean, though they may seem strange to us, are the primary rules of life on Earth.
Sönke Johnsen is a professor of biology at Duke University. He is the author of The Optics of Life: A Biologist's Guide to Light in Nature and the coauthor of Visual Ecology (both Princeton).
"A compelling work of oceanography [...] [The] prose is intelligent and filled with wonder."
– Chloe Clark, Foreword Reviews
"Reading Into the Great Wide Ocean is like having the good fortune of getting into the best conversation of your life about the amazing world of the deep sea with the best storyteller you've ever met. Johnsen's book is not just a revelation about a world that's unfamiliar and awe-inspiring, but one that holds valuable lessons for us above the waves as well."
– Juli Berwald, author of Life on the Rocks and Spineless
"The open sea might seem so distant for many of us that it may as well be another planet, but Sönke Johnsen is an affable and enthusiastic guide to the life thriving in that vast space between the surface and the bottom. A tale of both oceanic wonder and how scientific curiosity unfurls out at sea, Into the Great Wide Ocean is an invitation to dip our heads underwater and look in awe at aquatic lives we are just beginning to understand."
– Riley Black, author of Deep Water and The Last Days of the Dinosaurs
"Johnsen serves up a thoroughly entertaining account of what it's like to be in the largest, least explored living space on the planet, both for its inhabitants and as a visiting scientist. His highly imaginative analogies provide a unique personalized perspective while his descriptions of life at sea with seagoing scientists provide an engaging backdrop to his wonderfully crafted stories."
– Edith Widder, author of Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea
"Into the Great Wide Ocean is an astonishing tour of the otherworldly inhabitants of the open ocean and the scientists who study them. Sönke Johnsen is a warm, witty guide into this seemingly empty expanse of blue, where creatures resemble ethereal chandeliers, fireworks, and even the water itself. This book is suffused with wonder, and will transform how you see the sea."
– Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
