Books for the News

Take a Swim with the Fishes of the Open Ocean

jacket image
A few years ago, the Press made a big splash with The Deep, a collection of extraordinary images of unseen sea monsters lurking in the briny abyss. But what about the fishes who spend their lives closer to the surface? These creatures at last get their due in Julian Pepperell’s Fishes of the Open Ocean: A Natural History and Illustrated Guide. The first book to comprehensively describe these fishes and explore the complex and often fragile world in which they live, Fishes of the Open Ocean will be the definitive book on the subject for years to come—and, with over three hundred color images, the most lavishly produced as well. In it, Pepperell details the environment and biology of every major species of fish that inhabits the open ocean, an expanse that covers 330 million cubic miles and is the largest aquatic habitat on the Earth.
Discover magazine recently launched an online gallery of images from the book. Though these species might be more familiar to us than the oddities of the deep sea, they are nonetheless still magnificent. Check out the oarfish, the creature likely mistaken for sea serpents by mariners of the past. Or take a closer look at a hammerhead shark. After you’ve browsed the gallery, take a look at sample pages from the book, too.