Strange Sea Creatures - Hardcover

Hoyt, Erich

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0228102979 ISBN 13: 9780228102977

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2020

Synopsis

10 inches x 10 inches, hardcover with flap, 112 pages
Full color photographs throughout, glossary, index

Praise for Creatures of the Deep: In Search of the Sea's Monsters and the World They Live In:
"Erich Hoyt captures the excitement and beauty of recent advances [in ocean science]. With lavish photos and engaging, accurate prose, he takes readers on a journey of wonder through the ocean's layers and around the planet, shedding light on extraordinary lives."
-- BBC Wildlife
Marine researchers are discovering new ocean creatures every day, especially at its deepest depths. From the author of Creatures of the Deep, Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises and other books about the ocean and the animals that live there, comes a new title about some of the most unusual marine life forms.
The book organizes the creatures into three parts based on where they live in the ocean. Each part has representatives from the various marine animal classes (e.g., fish, crustaceans, jellyfish and siphonophores, squids, tunicates and other invertebrates). Informative captions accompany the 90 gorgeous photographs of otherworldly creatures.
Part 1: Surface Waters of the Ocean at Night: The Blackwater Vertical Migrators

In images taken by dedicated blackwater photographers Linda Ianniello and Susan Mears, these mostly larval creatures haunt the near-surface waters making vertical migrations every night to feed.

Part 2: Middle to Deep Dark Waters: Masters of the Language of Light

In this perpetual night, survival is a matter of being able to understand and process light signals, some in different colors, some flashing, some faint -- the most sophisticated use of bioluminescence on Earth. The sea creatures here are small with big eyes and even larger mouths with extraordinarily sharp teeth.

Photographer David Shale traveled with BBC Blue Planet and other expeditions to photograph these deep sea creatures, while photographers Solvin Zankl, Alexander Semenov and others brought their own dedication to expeditions in the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Part 3. The Continental Shelf to the Abyssal Plain: The Bottom Dwellers

This bottom of the sea has fewer fish, and is populated by such alien-like creatures as no-eyed or tripod fish, sea cucumbers, as well as basket stars, crabs, and worms with species varying by depth and location.

The introduction to each part of the book describes what makes the ocean waters at that depth unique, and why it is home to specific types of sea life. The photographs were taken in the ocean by expert divers and submariners, most of whom are both scientists and underwater photographers. The images display the creatures vividly against a background as black as the ocean depths.

About this title

About the Author

Erich Hoyt has spent much of his life on or beside the sea, working with whales and dolphins and marine conservation in the world's oceans. A noted conservationist and scientist and an award-winning author, he has written 24 books including the acclaimed Orca: The Whale Called Killer, Insect Lives, The Earth Dwellers, Creatures of the Deep, Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, and the children's books Weird Sea Creatures and Whale Rescue. He lives in Dorset, England.

From the Back Cover

Strange Sea Creatures
Erich Hoyt

By the same author:

Creatures of the Deep: In Search of the Sea's Monsters and the World They Live In

"Erich Hoyt captures the excitement and beauty of recent advances [in ocean science]. With lavish photos and engaging, accurate prose, he takes readers on a journey of wonder through the ocean's layers and around the planet, shedding light on extraordinary lives." -- Prof. Callum Roberts, BBC Wildlife

"Hoyt unravels the complex predator-prey relationships from 'killer' copepods to battles among giant squids and sperm whales, presenting compelling portraits of animals that are superbly adapted denizens of a dark, high-pressure world." -- National Association of Science Writers [USA]

-- Winner, Outstanding Nonfiction Book of the Year, American Society of Journalists and Authors

Marine researchers are discovering new ocean creatures every day, from the shallows to the deepest depths. Strange Sea Creatures looks at the fascinating ocean world and the animals that live there.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228102979
• ISBN 13: 9780228102977
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 112