Ocean The World's Last Wilderness Revealed

This massive volume, published in association with New York's American Museum of Natural History and featuring an introduction by marine explorer Fabien Cousteau, is divided into four sections comprising a general overview of the physical and chemical features of the ocean; ocean environments such as seashore, shallow seas, and open ocean; ocean life; and an atlas of the oceans. The nine contributors to the volume (most are British) include marine biologists, paleontologists, and natural history and life sciences writers. Many pages combining text, photos, and diagrams with great amounts of information, including small maps and statistical tables, are interspersed with dazzling double-spread color photos that also bear textual material. A glossary, index, and separate atlas index are included. Ease in locating material for ready reference in the various sections is provided by colored right-hand margins. Bottom Line Topics such as bioluminescence, wind farms, and white sharks are treated more fully here than in Dorrik Stow's Encyclopedia of the Oceans (Oxford Univ.). However, Stow's volume is about half the size while having more text in relation to illustrative material and providing an excellent overview for the general reader. The two volumes thus