Customer Reviews

The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea

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I ordered this book hoping for more amazing photographs of newly-discovered deep-sea species like I found in "The Deep", but I got much, much more than that. The review of deep-sea ecology was both incredibly interesting and not too difficult for someone without much experience in marine biology. I was glued to this book, and finished it was a new desire to follow the field of deep-sea research as it continues to develop. It was a great book for someone who is not familiar with the history and ecology of the deep sea to get a firm grasp on what is happening down there, and how our picture of life in the deep ocean has been turned on it's head. The section on conservation was good as well, and illustrated clearly and consisly how human activies specifically affect the environment in the deep sea realm.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in deep sea research - it was the perfect follow-up to "The Deep", with it's tantalizing photos of the unbelievable animals that live at such depths.

Tony Koslow has written an encyclopedia of the various deep-sea environments. His book contains many fine illustrations, and it makes a fine companion to the wonderful illustrations in The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss by Claire Nouvian.

Koslow focuses on the depths below two hundred meters where sunlight no longer penetrates, the largest habitat on Earth -- ninety percent of all the ocean's water, and eleven times the volume of all the land above the sea. Below six thousand meters lies a region known as the hadal zone; in the Marianas Trench it is 11,000 meters deep.

The hadal zone with its freezing water, heavy pressure, and darkness is harsh, but the freezing water carries oxygen necessary for life. The pressure is extreme but the creatures of the hadal zone don't feel it, because the pressure inside their bodies matches the pressure outside. There is no sunlight, but light from luminescent creatures abounds.

Koslow reviews Otis Barton's and William Beebe's trip in 1931 a quarter of a mile down in a "bathysphere." Beebe reported that the clear sea stretched endlessly, and was so full of luminescence that it sparkled like the night sky. Black shrimps, transparent eels, and bizarre fish approached and shadows and shifting patches of light hovered just out of view. Below lay a world that "looked like the black pit-mouth of hell itself."

On January 23, 1960, Swiss scientist and engineer Jacques Piccard and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh dove to the bottom in Trieste. At 10,910 meters, Piccard glimpsed a flat, fish-like creature moving away. That observation is all we know of higher life at the bottom of the hadal zone; we haven't returned since that visit.

A robot called Kaiko has explored more of the hadal zone, and has discovered a fragile, floating world of jelly life, organisms that are able to exist only because the water is so still that currents don't tear them apart. On the very bottom Kaiko found sea cucumbers, worms, and giant single-celled organisms up to twenty-five centimeters across which feed on the slow rain of organic matter from the surface. Kaiko was lost in 2003 and has not been replaced.

Koslow describes many wonders; one among many is the black seadevil. The female the size and shape of a grapefruit with and enormous mouth and a "fishing rod" between its eyes with luminescent bait. The male is tiny, feeding on scraps until he meets and bites his mate. Over time he becomes totally dependent on his mate receiving food, oxygen, and hormones from her blood. Only his testicles continue to function, but only at the pleasure of the female. When she is done with him, he is completely absorbed, and the female seeks another mate.

Koslow describes threats to the ocean: the dumping of toxic (and sometimes radioactive) waste, the accumulation of heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, the build-up of toxic chemicals such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and DDT, the damage caused by offshore oil rigs and over-fishing, and the potential damage that may be caused by seabed mining and carbon dioxide sequestration.

The book advocates various measures to protect ocean environments about which we know very little. Koslow endorses E.O. Wilson: "Man is defined not by what he creates, but by what he chooses not to destroy."

Rober C. Ross 2008

Tony Koslow does a great job in showing the reader what is going on in the Deep Sea. I am amazed at the brilliant pictures that it has in the book to give the reader a chance to see what life actually looks like in the deep sea. I am a big fan of the chapters on whale fall and bioluminescence. Another reason why I think this book is great is because it gives readers the chance to grasp the importance of the deep sea without even having any previous knowledge about it.

I am a student at BYU-I who is pursuing a Marine Biology major, and once that my teacher suggested some books to read I couldn't pass this one up. The most amazing thing about the deep sea is that it deifies that all life needs light to survive. In this book it tells the reader what makes the deep sea so different from other habitats around the world.

Another great part about this book is the part on conservation which helps the reader be able to understand what the nation does to the environment and it effects. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn and understand about the wonders of the deep sea.

This is a great addition to any marine biology, ecology and/or conservation library! The author uses simple language to convey an enormous amount of data about the deep sea, its amazing wildlife and the threats it faces. I learned a lot and found it to be one of the best books available on the subject. Now go read it and please help to conserve the ocean's last frontier!