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World Ocean Census: A Global Survey of Marine Life
"-- From the foreword by Sylvia Earle" An insider's description of the comprehensive Census of Marine Life and what it reveals about a seriously threatened ecosystem.
The Census of Marine Life was launched in 2000 with the goal of producing the first-ever ocean census by 2010. Two thousand scientists from 82 nations agreed to the mandate to answer three important questions:
What once lived in the global ocean? What is living there now? What will live there in the future?
With the census nearing completion, scientists around the world will inherit critical data that will be studied for decades to come. This data will be a basis for answering such simple questions as "What will become of sharks, whales, reefs and salmon?"
This book deals with the adventures and experiences of the Census of Marine Life and the process of gathering the data, revealing the stories behind the science. The authors detail the most fascinating findings and exciting discoveries -- the thrills encountered and the difficulties overcome -- all illustrated with fabulous images captured during the project's explorations.
The text readily engages the reader, and the photographs are as beautiful as they are accurate. The information is comprehensive, compelling and current, and it represents an enormous group effort by some of the world's leading scientists.
The organization of the book follows the three-part census mandate. Individual sections focus on a range of topics, from the logistics of the census to the space-age technology used to project the uncertain future of the world's oceans. The book is fully illustrated and provides informative captions and sidebars of data.
"World Ocean Census" is a unique record of a monumental global undertaking, worthy of a wide audience with a variety of interests.
The Census of Marine Life was launched in 2000 with the goal of producing the first-ever ocean census by 2010. Two thousand scientists from 82 nations agreed to the mandate to answer three important questions:
What once lived in the global ocean? What is living there now? What will live there in the future?
With the census nearing completion, scientists around the world will inherit critical data that will be studied for decades to come. This data will be a basis for answering such simple questions as "What will become of sharks, whales, reefs and salmon?"
This book deals with the adventures and experiences of the Census of Marine Life and the process of gathering the data, revealing the stories behind the science. The authors detail the most fascinating findings and exciting discoveries -- the thrills encountered and the difficulties overcome -- all illustrated with fabulous images captured during the project's explorations.
The text readily engages the reader, and the photographs are as beautiful as they are accurate. The information is comprehensive, compelling and current, and it represents an enormous group effort by some of the world's leading scientists.
The organization of the book follows the three-part census mandate. Individual sections focus on a range of topics, from the logistics of the census to the space-age technology used to project the uncertain future of the world's oceans. The book is fully illustrated and provides informative captions and sidebars of data.
"World Ocean Census" is a unique record of a monumental global undertaking, worthy of a wide audience with a variety of interests.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 17, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2020
Like a lot of other readers I was expecting this to be something like a catalogue of marine life detailing all the different marine creatures, how many there are, where they are, etc... but instead it's mostly about research and a historical look at the ocean and fishing industry. Both are good and interesting topics, but I think the title of the book needs to be changed so people will better understand what kind of book this is. I ended up giving it three stars because I was so disappointed it wasn't on marine life.
June 1, 2012
This book is a great snapshot of how scientists learn about our oceans and how they are working to collect more information, including a more complete survey of exactly what organisms are out there. It is written in a style that allows any non-science person to understand. This is a good read if you're interested in how the ocean works and how the vast immensity of it leads to so many different ecosystems with so many different marine organisms. It discusses the importance of understanding the history of the ocean; what the ocean was once like and what it once had in terms of organisms and how they learned this history. Further it discusses the importance of using this history of what the oceans were once were like in order to compare that to what the oceans are like now to understand more fully how humans have affected the oceans. It shows and discusses old and current scientific methods and tools to collect data to learn about the ocean and it's inhabitants and then has several beautiful photos of newly discovered (circa 2000) organisms. It also includes websites where one can learn more about the mission of the team of scientists that make up the World Ocean Census team and gain access to up to date information about what organisms have been discovered. Overall, it's a very interesting and well done book about our oceans.
July 9, 2010
Full of gorgeous photography, this book details the 2000-2010 project of answering these three questions: "What once lived in the global ocean? What is living in the ocean now? What will live in the ocean in the future?"
It was so intriguing to learn more about the thousands of crazy species that live in the some of the most forbidding places on earth. I took a class on oceanography in college and don't even remember learning about cold seeps (areas where hydrocarbons seep from sediments in the ocean floor into the water. Many organisms live off the chemical-rich waters surrounding these areas). Fascinating!
It would have been wonderful to have had a little bit more information on the life cycles and habitats of these animals instead of how hard it was to pay for and perform all of the research, but I still learned a lot from this book. It was also annoying to read paragraph after paragraph about conservation, garbage, dying coral, global warming, and overfishing. Most of these are real issues that should be addressed, but I thought this book was supposed to be about the census of the creatures in the ocean, not a censure of humans' use of the ocean!
Don't let these minor concerns stop you, this was a very fun read!
It was so intriguing to learn more about the thousands of crazy species that live in the some of the most forbidding places on earth. I took a class on oceanography in college and don't even remember learning about cold seeps (areas where hydrocarbons seep from sediments in the ocean floor into the water. Many organisms live off the chemical-rich waters surrounding these areas). Fascinating!
It would have been wonderful to have had a little bit more information on the life cycles and habitats of these animals instead of how hard it was to pay for and perform all of the research, but I still learned a lot from this book. It was also annoying to read paragraph after paragraph about conservation, garbage, dying coral, global warming, and overfishing. Most of these are real issues that should be addressed, but I thought this book was supposed to be about the census of the creatures in the ocean, not a censure of humans' use of the ocean!
Don't let these minor concerns stop you, this was a very fun read!
February 12, 2010
This book is NOT a comprehensive look at the gorgeous creatures of the ocean. Instead, it is the tale of some researchers and their equipment as they put transmitters on seals, turtles and less cute creatures to create a census and get a lot of really cool data. I love that people do that. And that they use the data. And I want to support them. But I am in it for the critters, and there was way too little of them to make this giant book worthwhile.
But in the back, they do describe jellyfish as the "cockroaches of the sea" for their ability to thrive in adverse conditions. That was hilarious and awesome.
But in the back, they do describe jellyfish as the "cockroaches of the sea" for their ability to thrive in adverse conditions. That was hilarious and awesome.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews