Ocean : earth's last wilderness / David Attenborough, Colin Butfield.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Award-winning broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough and longtime collaborator Colin Butfield present a powerful call to action focused on our planet's oceans, exploring how critical this habitat is for the survival of humanity and the earth's future.



Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder, and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet--the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate, and creates the air we breathe. This book showcase the oceans' remarkable resilience: they can, and in some cases have, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance.



Drawing a course across David Attenborough's own lifetime, Ocean takes readers on an adventure-laden voyage through eight unique ocean habitats, countless intriguing species, and the most astounding discoveries of the last 100 years, to a future vision of a fully restored marine world--one even more spectacular than we could possibly hope for. Ocean reveals the past, present and potential future of our blue planet. It is a book almost a century in the making, but one that has never been more urgently needed.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Authors' Note (vii)
• Preface (ix)
• Part 1 In the Lifetime of a Single Blue Whale (3)
• Part 2 Our Ocean World (25)
• 1 Coral Reef (27)
• 2 The Deep (57)
• 3 Open Ocean (101)
• 4 Kelp Forest (139)
• 5 Arctic (177)
• 6 Mangroves (209)
• 7 Oceanic Islands and Seamounts (243)
• 8 Southern Ocean (281)
• Part 3 In a Single Human Generation (319)
• Afterword (337)
• Acknowledgements (339)
• Picture Credits (341)
• Sources and Further Reading (343)
• Index (367)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Naturalist Attenborough (A Life on Our Planet) joins forces with Butfield (Earthshot)--cofounder of the environmental documentary production company Studio Silverback--to provide an awe-inspiring exploration of the open ocean, kelp forests, and six other marine biomes. Examining the ecological interactions that structure each habitat, the authors explain how coral reefs depend on the fish that live inside their many "nooks, holes, and crevices" and eat seaweed that might otherwise block out the sunlight coral need to survive. The authors highlight the remarkable ways animals have adapted to their environment, noting, for instance, how the cock-eyed squid evolved asymmetrical eyes--the larger of which looks upward to "spot prey against the very dim light from the surface" while the smaller one searches for bioluminescent creatures below--to survive in the deep ocean. Such trivia intrigues, and the authors balance alarming overviews of how humans are disrupting ocean ecosystems with uplifting stories of people working to prevent such harms. For instance, the authors lament how excessive trawling off England's southern coast since the 1980s has hollowed out the kelp forests that once flourished there and recount how free diver Eric Smith teamed up with wildlife documentarian Sarah Cunliffe in a successful effort to persuade U.K. officials to ban trawling near the shore in 2021. Attenborough's admirers will savor this. Illus. (May)

Booklist Review

Attenborough takes a deep dive into the ocean in this text that coincides with the release of a documentary film of the same name as well as the author's ninety-ninth birthday. Having witnessed incredible advances in technology in his lifetime while also observing both mass extinctions and spectacular recoveries of species and ocean communities, Attenborough offers a fascinating perspective. The first section of the book offers a snapshot of the lifetime of a single blue whale; the second section profiles eight different ocean habitats, including coral reefs, kelp forests, and mangroves; and the final section contemplates what is possible regarding the ocean in a single human generation. A wealth of personal stories and first-hand interviews lend an immediacy to the text. The writing is compelling, conveying the excitement of discovery while also being both mindful of the perils facing oceans and optimistic about what science has already accomplished, including the restoration of mangroves and kelp forests. Dynamic and informative, this text is a robust introduction to the habitats of the ocean and what their future might hold.

Kirkus Book Review

The world's best-known natural historian has not lost his touch. Attenborough is 98, but Butfield, his longtime collaborator and the author of the bestsellingEarthshot: How To Save Our Planet, knows the drill, so his mentor's voice shines through. Readers will enjoy this paean to the ocean's beauty and weirdness despite quickly realizing that the authors ignore the natural history tradition of saving bad news for the conclusion. It's a bumpy ride. It's no secret that water covers 70% of the planet, but most readers are unaware that 95% of the biosphere (regions where life exists) is under water. Until the 19th century, scientists believed that nothing lived below about 600 feet, where sunlight cannot penetrate. In fact, life flourishes there. The ocean averages two miles in depth and seven miles at its deepest point. Life exists to the very bottom; although our last unexplored wilderness, it is definitely not unspoiled. The book follows the format of an Attenborough documentary, with expressions of wonder at the sights and lucid explanations of what needs explaining: vast kelp forests, coral reefs, seamounts, and polar ice, all perhaps richer in life than the continents because they exist in three dimensions. This includes the largest animal that has ever existed, the blue whale, almost exterminated by 1950 but probably recovering, down to trillions of krill, tiny crustaceans consumed by whales, fish, birds, and massive factory ships that vacuum them up for pet food and fish oil tablets. Few readers will be surprised to learn that overfishing is rampant, deep-sea mining seems just around the corner (the entrepreneurs promise to be careful), and global warming is heating the oceans. The authors describe conservation efforts that have slowed some malignant activities and protected huge areas, but too many involve international agreements that are unenforceable. Natural wonders and their problems. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.