Journey into the Deep: Discovering New Ocean Creatures by Rebecca L. Johnson

In Rebecca Johnson's forward of Jounrey into the Deep, I ironically found a direct connection to the book of this blog's previous post, Mars and the Search for Life.  Sylvia A. Earle who wrote the forward of Journey into the Deep writes:

"If aliens came looking for life on Earth, they would probably first dive into the sea...Curiously, humans have only recently embakred on serous exploration fo the sea."

I found this to be a wonderful introduction to the book as it changed my reading from the beginning and how I thought about the sea.  I have spent many times wondering about the mystery of what lies beyond Earth's atmospthere, but rarely have I thought about what lies within the abyss of the ocean.

Using data from the 2010 Census of Marine Life, Johnson introduces the reader to just a fraction of the more than 250,000 species of life in the ocean.  Johnson lays out the book wonderfully, devoting between six and eight pages to each zone of the ocean: shallow edges, open water, deep slopes, the dark zone, abyssal plains. sea moutains, ridges and vents, and the "unfathomable deep."  Each section includes the most recent coloful, full-page photographs taken of marine life.  The photographs are so clearly defined I found myself hesitating to turn the page by touching the corner where a picture of the squidworm laid.  Johnson not only introduces the reader to the sea life of each ocean zone, but the research methods scientiest used to plunge into the depths of the ocean.  In the "unfathomable deep" section, Johnson includes a photograph of the lander, a titanium metal box with a camera in the middle, which is used to take picures of the ocean's deepest ponints where the pressure "is so great it would be like having fifty jumbo jets piled on top of you."  The lander brought, for the first time, video footage of life living almost seven miles beneath the surface!  Journey into the Deep never ceased to amaze me!

Rebecca L. Johnson has written numerous nonfiction science books for children and young adults.  For a complete listing of her works, click here.