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| The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss | 
 enlarge | Author: Claire Nouvian
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy New: $28.21
You Save: $16.79 (37%)
New (31) Used (13) from $27.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.7
Dimensions (in): 11.9 x 10.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0226595668
Dewey Decimal Number: 591.77
EAN: 9780226595665
Publication Date: March 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
On dry land, most organisms are confined to the surface, or at most to altitudes of a hundred meters—the height of the tallest trees. In the oceans, though, living space has both vertical and horizontal dimensions: with an average depth of 3800 meters, the oceans offer 99% of the space on Earth where life can develop. And the deep sea, which has been immersed in total darkness since the dawn of time, occupies 85% of ocean space, forming the planet’s largest habitat. Yet these depths abound with mystery. The deep sea is mostly uncharted—only about 5 percent of the seafloor has been mapped with any reasonable degree of detail—and we know very little about the creatures that call it home. Current estimates about the number of species yet to be found vary between ten and thirty million. The deep sea no longer has anything to prove; it is without doubt Earth’s largest reservoir of life. Combining the latest scientific discoveries with astonishing color imagery, The Deep takes readers on a voyage into the darkest realms of the ocean. Revealing nature’s oddest and most mesmerizing creatures in crystalline detail, The Deep features more than two hundred color photographs of terrifying sea monsters, living fossils, and ethereal bioluminescent creatures, some photographed here for the very first time. Accompanying these breathtaking photographs are contributions from some of the world’s most respected researchers that examine the biology of deep-sea organisms, the ecology of deep-sea habitats, and the history of deep-sea exploration. An unforgettable visual and scientific tour of the teeming abyss, The Deep celebrates the incredible diversity of life on Earth and will captivate anyone intrigued by the unseen—and unimaginable—creatures of the deep sea.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
stunning January 6, 2009
Amazing, wonderful pictures! It's astonishing that such creatures exist on our planet. The pictures and the printing are of the highest quality. The creatures are identified and a little information about each is provided. It's not a technical biology book (biologists might wish for more detailed text); it's a picture book with enough text so that you know what you're looking at. No one could fail to be fascinated by it, though a very sensitive child may find some of the fishes too scary.
Stunning...breathtaking...and more! January 5, 2009
Stunning in conception and execution, this book literally takes one's breath away.... Having spent a lot of time myself working in this murky, high pressure world, I can fully appreciate the scope of Claire Nouvian's accomplishment. Bravo!! -- Erich Hoyt (author of Creatures of the Deep and other books)
Extraordinary October 24, 2008
This book far exceeded my expectations. The photos were magnificant, the descriptions excellent and informative, and the paper quality and printing were supurb.
Amazing look into the deep blue August 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Love this book makes wonder why we travel so many millions of miles into deep space when so much of the ocean remains a mystery. Would recommend this as a present to almost anyone its that compelling.
 Welcome to the mysterious Black Planet July 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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Where would you find these?
(1) Gorgon's head
(2) Fangtooth
(3) Pigbutt worm
(4) Black medusa
(5) Radiolarians
Possible answers: In outer space? On the Earth's surface? In a horror movie? On a farm? In an electronics store?
Correct answer: these are the names of creatures found in the abyss. (Technically, the abyss is a particular zone of the oceans extending 3000 to 6000 meters in depth. This term is also used to designate the deep oceans overall.)
You will find photographs of the five creatures indicated above and the pictures of many more deep ocean creatures in this stunningly beautiful book by Claire Nouvian, a journalist, producer, and film director who has travelled the world for more than a decade, filming wildlife for French and international television.
The book has photographs with captions (its main feature) interweaved with text. The contents of the book is divided into two parts:
(I) Life in the water column (meaning life in the water above the seafloor)
(II) Life at the bottom (meaning life on the seafloor or just above it).
The colour photographs are, in a word--astonishing. All the creatures (that look like they're not of this planet) imaged are marvels of evolution and adaptation. Rare and unidentified abyss-dwellers are even photographed.
Each photograph has a caption made up of several pieces of information: (1) the abyss-dweller's scientific name (2) its descriptive name (not all photographs have this) (3) its size (4) the depth at which it's found and (5) known information about the creature. As an example, I will give an actual example of such a caption for the creature found on the book's jacket cover (displayed above by Amazon):
(1) Teuthowenia pellucida
(2) Googly-eyed glass squid
(3) SIZE 20 centimeters
(4) DEPTH larvae and juveniles 0-900 meters, adults 1600-2500 meters
(5) Three sentences of known information about this abyss-dweller.
The number of pictures in this book is almost 210.
In the copy of the book I have, at the beginning the reader is alerted that there are "four computer-generated illustrations." When these illustrations are actually encountered, the caption for these illustrations states "computer-generated image."
The text that's interweaved with the photographs consists mainly of two-page essays that begins most chapters, factoids, and quotations.
There are a total of fifteen succinct essays indicated in the table of contents. Each is written by a researcher at a prominent research facility. Examples of such facilities include the USA's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, France's French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
There is also an excellent five page introductory essay (not indicated in the table of contents). Be sure to carefully read this so as to orient yourself to the rest of the book.
Quotations from prominent people permeate throughout. One of my favourites was uttered by Jacques Cousteau in 1976:
"Under the sea, it seems my every gaze is as stolen from some forbidden world; and it triggers an emotional shock that never flags, no matter how many times I dive."
Revealing factoids also abound throughout the book. Here's an interesting fact:
At 150 meters depth, 99% of sunlight has been absorbed by water. Below 1000 meters, it's total, inky blackness for all.
(It is from this factoid that I came up with the title of this review.)
Based on the photographs and text, this book deserves a solid 5-STAR RATING.
Unfortunately, there are some problems with the book. The majority are minor (for example, the first two pictures found at the very beginning of this book have their captions on the credits page--the very last page), but the major problems primarily deal with the table of contents and index. (Note also that the credits page is not indicated in the table of contents.)
The table of contents is incomplete. For example, why isn't the introductory essay's (see above) title not mentioned in the table of contents? This introductory essay has four sub-sections. Why weren't these sub-section titles not mentioned? I feel that a ground-breaking book of this type should have a detailed table of contents.
The index is also incomplete. All it does is give the scientific names of the known species in this book and what page to find them on. That's it!! Why wasn't, for example, all the important information found in the fifteen chapter essays and the introductory essay appropriately indexed? Again, a grounding-breaking book of this type should have, I feel, a detailed index.
What is Nouvian's function with respect to this book? If you look at the book's cover, it seems that she is the author. She is NOT. If you look at the credits page, she is in charge of "photographic research." Amazon thinks she is the editor, but according to the credits page, she is not. Very confusing.
Based on these major and minor problems, this book should perhaps be given a 3-STAR RATING.
Finally, my final rating is an average of the two RATINGS given above.
In conclusion, this is a mesmerizing book giving us a glimpse into an alien world--the abyss.
(published 2007; preface; introduction; 20 chapters; main narrative 245 pages; appendix; glossary; index; bibliography; acknowledgements; credits)
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