Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories
contents Foreword by Brian Skerry Introduction Beneath the Waves In the Zones On the beach Sea Shell Secrets of the Shell Feeling Crabby What Is the Beach Tiny Turtles Hide-and-Seek Beach Birds Why Is the Ocean Salty BETWEEN TWO WORLDS The Swimming Lizard Smooth by Sea Lumbering on Land From Sky to Sea Where Rivers Meet the Sea Strong Roots Epic Reptile Fish Out of Water The Walking Whale WADING IN The Snail A Shell-tered Life No Bones About It The Rainbow Colored Slug Mussels and Their Cousins Crustacean Nation The Myth of Mermaids 6 8 9 10 12 14 15 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 33 34 36 37 38 40 42 44 46 47 48 50 51 52 54 REEF LIFE Amazing Ecosystem A World Without Color The Inflatable Fish Water Wings Reef Besties The Great Barrier Reef Reef Fish Big Bite The Snake That Swims Sea Scrub Rainbow Colored Romantic OCEAN FORESTS Eel Grass Underwater Meadows Food of the Sea A Different Kind of Dragon One Stylish Crab Master of Disguise Super Spiny Urchin Eaters Creatures of the Kelp Remarkable Waters Forecasting the Red Tide 56 58 59 60 61 62 64 66 68 69 70 72 74 76 77 78 80 81 82 84 85 86 88 90
THE OPEN OCEAN The Biggest Animal Ever Tiny but Mighty No Brain No Problem Swim Team Quick Change Artists Hunter or Hunted Smart Swimmer Life in the Open Ocean The Search for Longitude ON THE MOVE Homeward Bound Ocean Hunters Ocean Voyagers Hitchhikers of the Sea Mighty Movers Winging It Migration Mysteries LIFE ON THE ICY EDGE A Penguin Cold Weather Experts The Deal With Seals King of the North Ocean Hunters Unicorns of the Sea Chilly Swimmers Arctic Experts 92 94 96 98 100 102 104 105 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124 126 128 129 130 132 134 135 136 138 DEEP DOWN Adventures Down Below Go With the Glow What’s Glowing On The Twilight Zone The Midnight Zone Call It an Aww-ctopus The Living Fossil Lured In Deep-Sea Sharks The Voyage to the Bottom EXTREME OCEAN The Myth of the Kraken Undersea Mountains Life at the Limits Second Life Mapping the Ocean Floor PEOPLE AND OCEANS Into the Unknown Why the Ocean Matters Our Changing Seas Protecting Marine Places Saving Sharks An Interview With Marine Conservationist Jess Cramp Ocean of Plastic Turning the Tide Afterword by Sylvia A Earle Scientific Names of Ocean Life Index Photo Credits 140 142 143 144 146 148 150 151 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170 172 174 176 178 180 182 184 186 188 189 191
Foreword A day at the beach was absolutely magical when I was a young boy It was a pretty long car ride to get to the ocean and I couldn’t wait to get out of there and run into the water Living in New England that water was always a little chilly but I didn’t care I just needed to submerge myself in those waves The longer I spent in the water or the more seaweed I touched brought me closer to this place that beckoned me to explore The ocean was like an old friend that I hadn’t seen for a while and needed to hug I remember looking out at the expansive seascape and wondering what might be discovered beneath those waves Staring at the sea stirred my soul and ignited within me a passion to explore It seemed to be a place of endless discoveries and adventures and I yearned to journey farther out beyond the water’s edge When I was in my teens I became a scuba diver and then an underwater photographer Since then I have spent my life exploring the sea with a camera making pictures and sharing stories of all that I have learned I have been nose-to-nose with sharks on tropical coral reefs and dived with seals beneath 25-foot 7.6-m thick ice I have spent days photographing shrimps smaller than a grain of rice that were living on anemones and hours swimming with whales that allowed me into their world The experiences I have had with ocean wildlife have been beyond my wildest childhood dreams I often think of my life as an endless string of extraordinary moments in nature I have fallen in love with being in the company of ocean animals and seeing the amazing ways they live After decades of undersea exploration I realize that I have only scratched the surface of what remains to be seen The majority of ocean realms and the species that exist there are waiting to be discovered Given that every other breath we take comes from oxygen created by organisms in the ocean it is vital that we explore and protect it As you read Beneath the Waves you will find yourself on an undersea odyssey with each chapter revealing revealing a rich tapestry of life that is connected to all others Your undersea exploration begins here Brian Skerry Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife Since 1998 he has been a contract photographer photographer for National Geographic magazine covering a wide range of subjects and stories In 2014 he was named a National Geographic Fellow He has published more than 25 stories for National Geographic magazine on a range of subjects from sharks and whales to dolphins and coral reefs Brian’s work has also been featured in publications such as the New York Times BBC Wildlife Paris Match the Washington Post the Wall Street Journal Smithsonian Esquire Audubon and Men’s Journal Brian is the author of 10 books including the acclaimed Ocean Soul and his latest monograph entitled SHARK 7
