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Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth
A sea-going scientist explores how life thrives in one of the most mysterious environments on EarthThe 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 that 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.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2024
23 people are currently reading
424 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 2, 2025
”We are all at sea, and we’re all in it together.” My favorite book I’ve read in a long time!!!! We explore the open ocean, a totally mysterious and little understood habitat. I learned a LOT and felt a vicarious sense of wonder and joy. Sönke does an amazing job bringing us, the readers, along for the ride. A few highlights below will give you a sense of the book:
Here is my favorite passage in the book, to give you an idea: “I had lived at the top of a high hill in Pittsburgh, and then in the southeastern United States, so I thought I was used to thunder and lightning. But I had never seen anything like this. One stormy night, we were all sitting on the balcony of the main research building, looking at a shallow area of the reef that we knew had bioluminescent ostracods. After a few minutes, we noticed that every time the lightning flashed, about a hundred ostracods would flash back a second or two later. We watched this exchange for over an hour, none of us saying a word. As a kid I loved Greek mythology, and would read a book I had about it over and over. The first page had a drawing of Uranus the sky god, his face filled with stars, looking down at the earth goddess Gaia, who was looking back up at him with stars in her eyes. Forty years later, I sat on a tiny island with my friends, watching the sky and the sea talk to each other.”
On bioluminescence: ”In what ways could you use your light to help you? First, it your light is bright enough, you might temporarily blind the predator. We've discussed dark adaptation, and we all know that painful feling of stepping out into bright light after watching a movie in the day-time. The predator may take a while to recover from this, giving you time to move away. Or you could use your light to distract the predator. A pelagic worm known as the "green bomber" does this-releasing up to eight bioluminescent sacs from its body that can distract a predator while the worm itself escapes.
A third trick is to have sticky bioluminescent slime that coats an animal if it touches you. This is a bit like the purple dye some banks have in money bags during a robbery, which later explode covering both the money and the robbers in ink. In this case, though, the ink is glowing, making the predator now a target itself. Finally, your own flashing might attract another animal that is even larger and more dangerous than the predator that is bothering you, with the hope that this uber-predator will attack your predator, leaving you again to run off. This tactic, which reminds me of too many Godzilla movies, is called the
"burglar alarm" and is contested among bioluminescence re-searchers.”
On doliolids: ”I was surrounded by over a dozen long doliolid chains, all slowly swirling around me like ethereal serpents. As with salp chains, the members are all clones, but in this case the front individual, called the "nurse," does all the work. The nurse is typically much larger than the other individuals and moves like a salp. I'm not sure why doliolid chains work that way, but it never seemed fair to the nurse.”
On the largest migration on earth, the ocean’s great vertical migration: ”The standard statement in marine biology classes is that vertical migrators stay down during the day to avoid predation and come up at night to feed, but this doesn't really convey the creepiness of it. Imagine a world where zombies rule your city during the day, forcing the humans to hide in their houses, getting hungrier by the hour. Night falls, the zombies go to sleep, and everyone runs to the supermarket. Except instead of buying the food, they spend the night in the store eating one another. Now add the fact that some people have been waiting in the store all day for the people to show up at sunset, so that they can eat them, and you get an idea of the situation.”
On squid: “Schools of large squid can also be highly successful hunters, and Humboldt squid in particular are daunting.
Although not as long as giant squid or colossal squid —instead, about human-sized-they make up for it by being meaty, having sharp beaks, lining their suckers with "teeth," and hunting in packs. We do not know whether they hunt in coordinated packs as lions and wolves do, but recent work has shown that they have a complex repertoire of about fifty color patterns on their bodies, which they can cycle through.”
Sönke was my postdoc mentor; I am certainly not unbiased. But take my word for it- READ THIS BOOK!!!!
Here is my favorite passage in the book, to give you an idea: “I had lived at the top of a high hill in Pittsburgh, and then in the southeastern United States, so I thought I was used to thunder and lightning. But I had never seen anything like this. One stormy night, we were all sitting on the balcony of the main research building, looking at a shallow area of the reef that we knew had bioluminescent ostracods. After a few minutes, we noticed that every time the lightning flashed, about a hundred ostracods would flash back a second or two later. We watched this exchange for over an hour, none of us saying a word. As a kid I loved Greek mythology, and would read a book I had about it over and over. The first page had a drawing of Uranus the sky god, his face filled with stars, looking down at the earth goddess Gaia, who was looking back up at him with stars in her eyes. Forty years later, I sat on a tiny island with my friends, watching the sky and the sea talk to each other.”
On bioluminescence: ”In what ways could you use your light to help you? First, it your light is bright enough, you might temporarily blind the predator. We've discussed dark adaptation, and we all know that painful feling of stepping out into bright light after watching a movie in the day-time. The predator may take a while to recover from this, giving you time to move away. Or you could use your light to distract the predator. A pelagic worm known as the "green bomber" does this-releasing up to eight bioluminescent sacs from its body that can distract a predator while the worm itself escapes.
A third trick is to have sticky bioluminescent slime that coats an animal if it touches you. This is a bit like the purple dye some banks have in money bags during a robbery, which later explode covering both the money and the robbers in ink. In this case, though, the ink is glowing, making the predator now a target itself. Finally, your own flashing might attract another animal that is even larger and more dangerous than the predator that is bothering you, with the hope that this uber-predator will attack your predator, leaving you again to run off. This tactic, which reminds me of too many Godzilla movies, is called the
"burglar alarm" and is contested among bioluminescence re-searchers.”
On doliolids: ”I was surrounded by over a dozen long doliolid chains, all slowly swirling around me like ethereal serpents. As with salp chains, the members are all clones, but in this case the front individual, called the "nurse," does all the work. The nurse is typically much larger than the other individuals and moves like a salp. I'm not sure why doliolid chains work that way, but it never seemed fair to the nurse.”
On the largest migration on earth, the ocean’s great vertical migration: ”The standard statement in marine biology classes is that vertical migrators stay down during the day to avoid predation and come up at night to feed, but this doesn't really convey the creepiness of it. Imagine a world where zombies rule your city during the day, forcing the humans to hide in their houses, getting hungrier by the hour. Night falls, the zombies go to sleep, and everyone runs to the supermarket. Except instead of buying the food, they spend the night in the store eating one another. Now add the fact that some people have been waiting in the store all day for the people to show up at sunset, so that they can eat them, and you get an idea of the situation.”
On squid: “Schools of large squid can also be highly successful hunters, and Humboldt squid in particular are daunting.
Although not as long as giant squid or colossal squid —instead, about human-sized-they make up for it by being meaty, having sharp beaks, lining their suckers with "teeth," and hunting in packs. We do not know whether they hunt in coordinated packs as lions and wolves do, but recent work has shown that they have a complex repertoire of about fifty color patterns on their bodies, which they can cycle through.”
Sönke was my postdoc mentor; I am certainly not unbiased. But take my word for it- READ THIS BOOK!!!!
September 26, 2025
There are only a handful of people I’ve met who have profoundly shaped the way I see the world: my grandfather, my high school journalism advisor, my PI from my primary research at Duke’s Hyperbaric Center, and my senior-year Sensory Biology professor, Sönke Johnsen. With Sönke in particular, I find it easy to fall in love with his ideas and values because they are rooted in a shared passion for scuba diving and the ocean. His writing captures not only the wonder of marine life but also his wit, humility, and intellectual brilliance. Reading this book, I felt as though his voice guided me through every page, transforming the book into something more than just text, but a reflection of the kind of person he is: insightful, generous, and deeply inspiring.
In the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity of a lifetime and attended a high school marine biology program in Curaçao. I earned 2 scuba certifications, volunteered at the local coral reef restoration organization, and took a marine biology college course. It cost I think around $6,000. I am beyond lucky and grateful my parents had the money and were willing to pay for me to attend this program, because it changed my life. Beyond the actual scuba diving—my favorite thing in the world—I remember recording videos every single night before going to bed on Snapchat. I didn’t have WiFi, so it wasn’t to post, just to document for myself. In those clips, I talked about how I felt more me than I ever had before in my life. I was surrounded by people who also loved the ocean as much as me. It’s different from any other community I’ve ever been a part of. I felt like my most authentic self, and I was truly, deeply happy. This must just be the magic. And Sönke seems to think so too.
"Humans are different at sea than they are on land. I already mentioned that we don’t think as quickly, maybe because we’re working so hard to stand, but there’s more to it than that. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it, but the best I can say is that people at sea become more of what they are."
"I will miss the knowledge that a group of disparate people can come together; treat each other with respect, kindness, and humor; and get the job done. I wish this experience for my university, my town, my adopted country, and for our world, which—like our boat—is just a blip in a sea that goes beyond the horizon in every direction. We are all at sea, and we are all in it together."
In the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity of a lifetime and attended a high school marine biology program in Curaçao. I earned 2 scuba certifications, volunteered at the local coral reef restoration organization, and took a marine biology college course. It cost I think around $6,000. I am beyond lucky and grateful my parents had the money and were willing to pay for me to attend this program, because it changed my life. Beyond the actual scuba diving—my favorite thing in the world—I remember recording videos every single night before going to bed on Snapchat. I didn’t have WiFi, so it wasn’t to post, just to document for myself. In those clips, I talked about how I felt more me than I ever had before in my life. I was surrounded by people who also loved the ocean as much as me. It’s different from any other community I’ve ever been a part of. I felt like my most authentic self, and I was truly, deeply happy. This must just be the magic. And Sönke seems to think so too.
"Humans are different at sea than they are on land. I already mentioned that we don’t think as quickly, maybe because we’re working so hard to stand, but there’s more to it than that. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it, but the best I can say is that people at sea become more of what they are."
"I will miss the knowledge that a group of disparate people can come together; treat each other with respect, kindness, and humor; and get the job done. I wish this experience for my university, my town, my adopted country, and for our world, which—like our boat—is just a blip in a sea that goes beyond the horizon in every direction. We are all at sea, and we are all in it together."
May 31, 2025
As the author says, there's a lot of books on deep-sea life and life at the ocean bottom. What about life in the pelagic ocean? Here, the author, a marine biologist at Duke University, spotlights the strange but little-known inhabitants of the pelagic zone, featuring translucent animals such as pelagic snails, siphonophores, cranchiid squids, and the carnivorous Velella velella. He also explains their mechanisms of survival such as buoyancy, pressure control when diving, vision and bioluminescence which were quite dense to read but truly worth understanding. I also liked how the author shared his experiences of life aboard a ship, as part of a scientific research vessel. He has a lifetime's worth of striking memories and experiences-- such as being on a research station on a Belize reef as thunder and lightning storms pummeled the sea, only to be answered by bioluminescent flashes below. Or when a postdoc fell off the ship-- and was thankfully rescued. This book shows the endless adventure in both mind and physicality that animates marine biology research.
February 10, 2025
A joyful short masterpiece that draws you in
Johnsen's story takes us to a world that hardly anyone has ever visited, nor even imagined.
Hilarious at times, gripping in its evocation of the realities of diving and its dangers, filled with wonder at the "endless forms most beautiful." And those creatures are depicted with magnificent drawings that took me right back to Rachel Carson's classics.
On top of that, there is deep science, told simply and well with connections to everyday life that I had not grasped before.
Wait, there is more. I know of no more perfect, simple, and beautiful description of a scientist's spirituality. It's not in your face, Johnsen rarely mentions it out loud, but it shines from every page. Spoiler alert: It's not an austere spirituality. It's joyful.
It's been said "He who can tell how he burns, burn little," but Johnsen burns hot, and he can also tell those of us not lucky enough to dive with him.
Johnsen's story takes us to a world that hardly anyone has ever visited, nor even imagined.
Hilarious at times, gripping in its evocation of the realities of diving and its dangers, filled with wonder at the "endless forms most beautiful." And those creatures are depicted with magnificent drawings that took me right back to Rachel Carson's classics.
On top of that, there is deep science, told simply and well with connections to everyday life that I had not grasped before.
Wait, there is more. I know of no more perfect, simple, and beautiful description of a scientist's spirituality. It's not in your face, Johnsen rarely mentions it out loud, but it shines from every page. Spoiler alert: It's not an austere spirituality. It's joyful.
It's been said "He who can tell how he burns, burn little," but Johnsen burns hot, and he can also tell those of us not lucky enough to dive with him.
January 16, 2025
“In this book, I have tried to give you a sense of what it is like to be in the open ocean, both as a permanent inhabitant and as a researcher”, Johnsen says within the last few pages. I can say that was most definitely achieved. This book was therapeutically freeing for me. While I’m not sure the ocean is something I can handle as a career, it has always been calling for me. This book was everything I’d been searching for. I wanted to know about the depth of the sea (both literally and metaphorically), and here, I found an easily digestible starting point. I can certainly say this is a book I will re-read and keep close to my heart forever.
February 8, 2025
(Audiobook) A solid, but not quite spectacular, work about a man who made his living studying the oceans. It is part memoir, part travelogue and part knowledge book about the ocean. The first part of the book talks mostly about the author’s actions and personal discoveries/observations about diving in the ocean and the struggles of reaching the ocean for a living. The second half gets into observations/actions of the ocean. It is readable, but it didn’t come across as particularly memorable. A decent library checkout, but not much more than that.
October 9, 2025
A wonderful dive into the pelagic realm. The author is gripped throughout the book with the siren call of the sea — a call that I, being a landlocked midwesterner, has never been able to understand how it even has such power over me, until now. And what is this understanding? He concludes the book with it, not only is the ocean awe inspiring, it is often so communal. We want to be in a group where what we do matters, in the spirit of adventure, in the service of progress, in the diversity of life. We are all at sea, and we are all in it together. Good read.
August 4, 2025
4.5 stars.
Reading this is like having your favorite marine biology professor convert his lectures into a highly accessible book. Johnsen includes the perfect amount of personal experience and human anecdotes without allowing it to dominate the text, and balances the hard science with humor. I also appreciated how open he was about areas where modern science simply cannot answer the questions we wonder about these pelagic animals.
Reading this is like having your favorite marine biology professor convert his lectures into a highly accessible book. Johnsen includes the perfect amount of personal experience and human anecdotes without allowing it to dominate the text, and balances the hard science with humor. I also appreciated how open he was about areas where modern science simply cannot answer the questions we wonder about these pelagic animals.
May 28, 2025
Part memoir, part textbook. Not the best combination ever. I didn’t think it possible to feel bored listening to an audiobook about the open ocean. It is possible. If I had been assigned this as a biology textbook - it would have been “pretty good” As a recreational read? Not as much.
July 17, 2025
good mix of entertaining and educational! def lost me a few times tho (but that could’ve been the fact that i was listening at 1.25x speed lol) pelagic animals are so cool!!! also written by a duke professor so that’s cool and ive actually been in his lab which is also cool
August 3, 2025
A beautiful little book that gracefully intertwines the author’s personal essays and intriguing science that I wouldn’t have even thought might be a thing. If you’re interested in scuba diving, ocean research, or just want to read a well-researched book about the sea, this gem is for you.
October 17, 2024
Important subject and wonderfully researched and written
April 5, 2025
Interesting book about the ocean and being in the life as a marine biologist.
April 23, 2025
3.5⭐️
May 5, 2025
There were a lot of interesting facts and tidbits in here but it was hard to pick up and easy to put down.
May 13, 2025
A very enjoyable read about the mid ocean. The author does a nice job mixing his own experiences into the narrative without overwhelming it.
September 16, 2025
i was bored the whole time
October 24, 2025
didn’t think it was possible for a book about the ocean to bore me but here we are
September 29, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews