The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss

The most abundant vertebrate on Earth is the benttooth bristlemouth, a deep-water fish that uses counter illumination for camouflage. It emits light that exactly matches the color and intensity of the dim filtered sun light overhead, thus obliterating its silhouette. In other words it uses light to make itself invisible in deep dark waters. That’s like the invisibility cloak of fish. There are other ways of hiding in the deep dark ocean. Many animals here are nearly transparent, such as the glass octopus. I’ll bet you thought that the most abundant vertebrate on Earth was something else, like the rat or the gecko.The deep dark ocean is by far the largest habitat on earth and it is teaming with life much of it unknown. The oceans correspond to 99% of the Earth’s habitable space and the very deep sea below 1,000 meters corresponds to 85% of the Earth’s habitable space. Below 200 meters (656 feet) there is no plant life and below about 1,000 meters (3281 feet) there is no sun light at all. However, various forms of nourishment are trickling down from the surface, and there are hydrothermal vents, and naturally deep sea predators prey on other deep sea living creatures. Fish and other creatures have found a niche here and many animals come here to avoid surface predators.Light is very important deep down in the darkness. Glowing bacteria on fecal matter sinking down from the surface help animals locate it. Light is used to locate prey and nourishment and for camouflage. 80-90% of all animals in the deep are bioluminescent. Some of the weirdest looking creatures that you can imagine live here and that is what this book is about.Claire Nouvian is a journalist and researcher who decided to write a book about the deep seas. She could not find a single comprehensive and attractive source of information about the deep seas for the general public and therefore she decided to create one. She collected information, photographs, and videos gathered by various oceanographers over a period 20-25 years. She put the most amazing footage and facts that she could find into this book. A very large group of scientists helped her with the project.The book contains a lot of facts similar to what I presented in my first paragraphs above. It also describes the deep seas, the environment, the various habitats, and what kind of creatures you can find where in different parts of the ocean and how they live. Claire Nouvian is also very concerned about environmental issues and the impact we humans have on our planet. Therefore, the book is partially focused on the environmental impact of humans on the deep seas, a topic which is little understood.Since we have harvested so much resources and fish at the ocean’s surface fisheries have had to resort to deep-sea trawling, which not only removes fish from the deep sea but also destroys the ocean floor and deep sea coral reefs (yes there are such things). Global warming and the related sea water acidification is another environmental issue discussed. What is so scary is that the environmental impact on the deep sea cannot easily be accessed since so little is known about the deep seas.The book is a large hardbound coffee table book with 258 pages. It is divided into 20 chapters. A few of the chapters are; “Deep Trenches the Ultimate Abysses”, “Hydrothermal Vents”, “Evolution Caught Red Handed”, “Monsters of the Deep”, and “Living Lights in the Sea”. The book also has a glossary, an index, a bibliography, and a section featuring deep ocean facts. The information in the book is fascinating and easily accessible, it is well organized and well presented, and Claire Nouvian is clearly an excellent and inspiring author. It should be noted that all metrics used in the book are in meters (not feet), which I see as an advantage.The most impressive aspect of the book are the several hundred large color photographs of various strange deep sea creatures. Some of the deep sea creatures depicted are big such as the giant squids, some of them are transparent, many of them are bioluminescent, many of them are colorful, and many of them look extremely weird and scary. Some of the photographs are high resolution photographs and some of them are a little fuzzy, but in either case the photographs are fascinating. One interesting aspect of the photos is that all of them have a marker that indicates the depth where the photographed creature can be found (0 – 9,000 meters or 0 to 29,528 feet). It should be noted that there are five images that look like photographs but that are in fact computer generated images. However, this is indicated next to the image. The images of the giant squids are computer generated images. In summary, I love this book.

When I ordered this book, I wasn't sure if it would live up to my expectations, but it not only lived up to them, it surpassed them. The photography is incredibly, sometimes frighteningly so, at other times beautiful and intriguing. The text is good, but the focus is on the photos. Those who complain there's not enough info accompanying the photos should follow up with other books that will provide them the details they seek (assuming such details are known, as many of the creatures shown in this book are a mystery to science as so little is known about them). I love to give this book as a gift to special friends who are difficult to please as they find themselves fascinated by it. It's a large, coffee-table book, but it isn't so large as to be uncomfortable or awkward to hold on your lap or read on a table.Getting back to the text, the author provides basic info (when known), so the reader needn't feel short-sheeted. And above all, the photos are wonderful and capture the imagination. It's mind-blowing to realize we share our planet with such bizarre and surreal creatures, only a small percentage of which we've ever seen.I LOVE THIS BOOK!

I've always been fascinated by the deep sea. As David Attenborough has pointed out in the marvellous BBC series "Blue Planet", half of the world's surface is covered by water more than a mile deep, and we still know very little about what goes on down there. More men have walked on the moon than have penetrated the deepest ocean depths. This magnificent publication helps redress the balance. It takes you down to this bizarre world with its pitch blackness and crushing pressures and shows you some of its inhabitants (I believe a new species is discovered every ten days). The pictures are augmented by fascinating descriptions. The only sad note is that two of the creatures depicted, the two enormous squids (giant and colossal) with their dinner plate-sized eyes, will probably never be seen the way they have been depicted (artists' representations, as opposed to photos) - it was only recently that Japanese researchers got actual photos of the live animals. Still the artists' representations are fascinating and excite the imagination with the knowledge that there be real monsters down there and that this is what they look like.Claire Nouvian has done us a great service by producing this book showing us an extraordinary world, and one which man is in the process of destroying without even knowing what's down there.

Our son is 8, turning 9. We got this for him for his birthday. He LOVES it! He sits there looking at the absolutely gorgeous photographs and reading about the animals for very long periods of time! Abyssal creatures are his passion, so this book was very fitting. The book is HUGE! I will warn you. Check the dimensions. It is akin to a collage textbook, only bigger :). We are very happy with this purchase. Gifts about abyssal sea life are really hard to come by. This was a great buy for us! The text is very informative, too!

I had been wanting to purchase this book for some time. Now that I have, I couldn't be happier with it!The dust-jacket image and text have a gloss-finish that contrasts the beautiful matte-finish of the black background. What is on the inside of the cover is even better and to be modest: stunningly beautiful!With visually spellbinding images, loads of interesting facts (with real scientific substance) and unbelievable photography, this book has got to be one of the best books on the Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss. For a glimpse at what to expect I recommend visiting the offical site of this book: [...] - here you will find an image gallery, more on the book, reviews on this book, information about the author, Claire Nouvian, and more.For those of you simply interested in the incredible aesthetics of this title, it should be noted that this book is likely the ULTIMATE coffee-table book!I hope this review helps =]GorJess

Sorprendentes fotos, Descriptiva un poco corta, y temática dispersa, pero un buen libro para disfrutar de las ilustraciones.

Very good book, everybody curious about deep sea creatures will like it

I've visited well over 100 countries and have at least 300 books of photos. Yet for me this book was virtually all new - a huge world I knew nothing about. Even more shocking - the book was published 9 years ago but I've seen little or nothing elsewhere.As the book makes clear, "The Deep" is larger than the land, the "shallow" reachable be scuba divers and the "air" occupied by birds all combined. It may have more species than all these other areas combined. And we know less about it (and spend a tiny fraction as much exploring) than the other planets in our solar system.The cover picture is typical of what is inside. Most of these creatures look like nothing you have seen before. The text does a reasonable job of explaining why they look like they do and what is known about their lives. But the overwhelming message is that we know very little.The best natural science book I've seen in many years. Beautiful, informative but left me wondering.

Imposante Bilder von außergewöhnlichen Lebewesen aus den tiefen des Ozeans. Wirklich interessant anzusehen.Ein toller Bildband den ich ohne Bedenken weiter empfehlen würde.

Bought this book for an upcoming university project..the imagery is fantastic, great page layouts and lots of information. Explains the depths of the waters and the different creatures living within the different layers. Fantastic product worth the money.