The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs

by Richard Smith

Overview

From internationally-renowned marine biologist Dr. Richard Smith comes a colorful underwater journey into the homes of hundreds of unknown sea creatures.



Dr. Richard Smith has dived into the ocean more than thirty-five hundred times. He regularly comes face to face with sea animals most of us have never heard of, and certainly never seen. In The World Beneath, Dr. Smith takes us through the mysterious, sprawling deep blue sea and introduces us to its jaw-dropping, but unknown residents.



Through his mesmerizing words and his award-winning photography featured throughout, we venture deep into the unknown with him as our guide. We meet his beloved pygmy seahorse, which he is the world’s leading expert on. We dive with him in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. We meet the likes of pearlfish, fangblennies, walking sharks, and much more.



Many of the creatures Dr. Smith introduces us to are friendly, others are deadly, but they’re all fascinating. Sadly, many of them are in jeopardy with likely extinction ahead. We get to meet them before it’s too late.



This exquisite and beautifully designed volume give extraordinary insight, shows the striking colors of the sea creatures, and give a remarkable up-close view of their world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948062220
Publisher:	Apollo Publishers
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	183,674
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr. Richard Smith is a marine biologist and conservation expert, an award-winning underwater photographer and videographer, a public speaker, and the leader of diving expeditions around the world; he’s been on more than thirty-five hundred dives since 1996. Dr. Smith has written hundreds of articles, published internationally, with a primary focus on conservation, marine life, and travel. His photographs have also been featured around the world, including on dozens of magazine covers and in exhibitions, and he’s won several awards for them. His narrated documentary video Raja Ampat: Diving the World’s Richest Reefs premiered at the Australia International Dive Expo in 2015. In 2016, he was invited to the Datai Langkawi in Malaysia to film a natural history documentary series about local reefs. Dr. Smith has a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, England, a master’s degree in Marine Ecology and Evolution from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a PhD, also from the University of Queensland, which he received for his pioneering research on the biology and conservation of pygmy seahorses; it was the first PhD ever awarded for this subject. Dr. Smith is part of a small group of syngnathid researchers and conservationists who make up the IUCN Seahorse, Pipefish and Stickleback Specialist Group. The group is the recognized world authority on these fishes and is dedicated to their conservation through the World Conservation Union. He was also recently appointed as the Global Pygmy Seahorse Expert for iSeahorse.org, which uses citizen science to further the research and conservation of seahorses. As a public speaker, Dr. Smith has been invited to speak on marine life at conferences and events around the world for the last decade. He lives in England.

Read an Excerpt

In the declining early evening light forty-five feet beneath the surface on a remote Indonesian coral reef, a tiny seahorse strangles another with its tail. Just three-quarters of an inch long, the diameter of a one-cent coin, and perfectly camouflaged against the windshield-sized fan-like gorgonian coral they inhabit, these creatures have a penchant for the dramatic. For my PhD research I spent six months watching and recording the antics of these mysterious and diminutive fish, collecting data on their biology and conservation—the first recorded observations of their social and reproductive behaviors. Denise’s pygmy seahorses had only been recognized by science four years previously, in 2003. Like other behaviors that occur on coral reefs every day, these skirmishes have presumably been happening for millennia. We just didn’t know to look for them.

Most of us hear about coral reefs and see them on nature documentaries, but unless we’re lucky enough to experience such awe-inspiring ecosystems firsthand, it can be hard to appreciate their intricacies. Exploring a tropical rain forest, you drip with sweat in a supersaturated and oppressive atmosphere waiting to spot an animal. A bird might call in the distance, the insect at your feet might unleash its high-pitched whine, and, perhaps, if you’re very lucky, and extremely patient, something larger might barrel toward you from the undergrowth. On a healthy coral reef, you can glimpse activity and life wherever you happen to look. Dozens of fish busy themselves with their daily commutes and travails.

In one hour on an Indonesian reef you will likely see over one hundred multihued and multiform species of fishes, if not double that—scrupulous cleaners, eccentric lovers, steadfast parents. The nervous comet fish pokes its marionette of a tail out of a hole, attempting to convince you it’s a menacing moray eel. Inches from your mask, a small but assertive damselfish warns you not to swim any closer to its precious algal farm. You may not know the names of all of them, but you are mesmerized: immersed in the hustle and bustle of their daily rituals.

Coral reefs continue to surprise and delight. My work has taken me all over the globe and introduced me to coral reefs in twenty-three countries. I have seen fish that wouldn’t even stretch across a dime and others that are longer than two London buses. I have seen vibrant and bustling coral gardens that stretch as far as the eye can see and I have captured the first photograph of creatures that have never before been pictured alive. Elsewhere in the ocean, I have come face to face with a warty file snake deep among the roots of a mangrove forest in Indonesia, photographed animals and behaviors in Japan that were still unknown to science, and spent hours scouring an algal-covered rock face to find an unnamed relative of the seahorse in New Zealand. My aim in this book is to share some of my passion and wonder for coral reefs and the astounding variety of creatures that call them home, while allowing those who aren’t lucky enough to experience this wonderful ecosystem firsthand a window under the waves.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Diving In
2. How the Reef Works
3. The Coral Triangle
4. New Discoveries of the Twenty-First Century
5. Things That Live on Things
6. The Unseemly World of Anemonefish
7. Pygmy Seahorses: Tales from the Stables
8. Parasites Rule the Reef
9. Colors of the Reef
10. Flashers and Fairies
11. Coral Reefs in the Twenty-First Century
12. Future of the World’s Reefs

Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

07/29/2019

Packed with vibrant images of sea life large and small, scientist and photographer Smith’s volume is a splendid and thorough look beneath the surface of the ocean. Expressing his “passion and wonder for coral reefs and the astounding variety of creatures that call them home,” Smith relates that, over the course of an extensive career in marine biology, he has “seen fish that wouldn’t even stretch across a dime and others that are longer than two London buses” and “spent hours scouring an algal-covered rock face to find an unnamed relative of the seahorse in New Zealand.” Early chapters deal with how reefs work, introducing elements such as coral colonies and plankton, and focusing on the so-called Coral Triangle, near eastern Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Smith’s countless photos of angelfish, butterfly fish, and the like help to illustrate the area’s extraordinary biodiversity. Later sections touch on climate change and “other anthropogenic disturbances” that have caused significant harm, including widespread coral bleaching linked directly to rising sea temperatures and witnessed by the author himself during scuba expeditions. In this impressive work, Smith effectively showcases much of what the marine world has to offer, while also reminding audiences how important it is to preserve and protect that world. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2019

A British diver with a doctorate in marine biology, Smith has explored and photographed coral reef communities around the world, particularly the coral-rich seas of the western Pacific Ocean known as the Coral Triangle. After explaining the basic structure and ecology of coral reefs, Smith turns to specific reef inhabitants such as nudibranchs (sea slugs), amphipods (mini-crustaceans), anemone fish (of Finding Nemo fame), and the exquisitely camouflaged pygmy seahorses. Descriptions of these creatures hardly do them justice; fortunately, there are multiple photographs of each species. Concluding with a discussion of the threats facing reef ecosystems from climate change effects—especially coral bleaching—Smith warns that many reef communities may die out before we have had a chance to find and name the unknown species living there. The author's stunning photos bring the text to life in vivid colors; a map would have been helpful for pinpointing locations in the Coral Triangle. VERDICT Smith vividly documents the amazing diversity of marine life associated with coral reefs and eloquently argues for their protection. Recommended for armchair travelers and reef enthusiasts.—Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

Library Journal

Packed with vibrant images of sea life large and small, scientist and photographer Smith’s volume is a splendid and thorough look beneath the surface of the ocean.” —Publishers Weekly

“Smith vividly documents the amazing diversity of marine life associated with coral reefs and eloquently argues for their protection.” —Library Journal

“This book by Dr. Richard Smith is a surprise-filled delight from start to finish.” —DIVER magazine

“I was completely on board with Dr. Richard Smith’s gorgeous new book and his aim to engage and educate the reader . . . and Dr. Smith does not disappoint. . . . I would recommend it without hesitation.” —The Linnean

“A dazzling display of the deep’s endangered denizens, from color-changing crustaceans to secretive sea dragons, and whale sharks to seahorses so small they are almost invisible.” —The Lady, Books of the Year, 2020

“Richard Smith [reveals] secrets of coral reefs and some of their smaller, less well-known inhabitants in this fascinating and accessible book.” —X-Ray International Dive Magazine

“I guarantee that once you have read this remarkable book, you will never again look at the reef in the same way again; your understanding of the workings of the reef, the total dependence of everything that exists upon everything else, will all suddenly fall into place.” —British Society of Underwater Photographers

From the Publisher