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Product Description
Book Description
A revelatory new exploration of the hidden underwater world
Product Description
The oceans are the single most important feature of our planet. They shape our climate, our culture, our future. Yet we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about Earth's watery depths.
What lies below the frozen Arctic ice-sheets? Or in the intriguing black holes under the Caribbean Sea? Drawing on the most exciting stories from the fields of sub-aquatic archaeology, geology, marine biology and anthropology, professional diver and explorer Paul Rose reveals an astonishing hidden world of lost cities, forgotten shipwrecks, underwater caves and submerged volcanoes. He also looks at life in the ocean habitat, from great white sharks to the myriad exotic, but rarely seen, creatures that thrive in the extreme conditions miles beneath the surface.
This book, like the landmark television series it accompanies, examines the possible consequences of upsetting this delicate balance and its impact on global warming. Beautifully illustrated with more than 150 colour photographs, Oceans: Exploring the Hidden Depths of the Underwater World unravels the mysteries of the deep and provides illuminating insights into this vast undersea domain.
The oceans and seas explored include the Mediterranean, the Sea of Cortez, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 28 people found the following review helpful
I saw this book in Sainsbury's and suggested to my wife that it would be a good birthday present. Sure enough, guess what I got on my birthday. I love the underwater world as I am a scuba diver so anything like this is right down my street. The images are superb and the tone of the text makes it very easy to read. It'd be quite suitable to read in its own right but as the TV series is on at the moment it makes a great accompanyment to that as well. Definately recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
I found this review from The Time on the internet in 2008. 5 stars for the review zero for the book.
When the rough cut for the first episode of Oceans dropped into the commissioning editor's DVD player, he must have cried the Pacific. It is titanic, sink-with-all-hands television and was spectacular in its empty nothingness. They must have shot an albatross on day one. This is a big, expensive co-production that has come back with film that looks like a second-marriage honeymoon from the Red Sea. The bar for underwater nature has been set pretty high by The Blue Planet and that mermaid lady who holds her breath and frots dolphins. Failing to get any aquatic film of interesting fish, they decided to point the camera at each other. The crew were an overexcited group of challengeable "experts", as vocal and coherent as seagulls and about as likeably watchable as a get-to-know-you party of Cornish swingers in a Jacuzzi. I can just about understand that the idea was to get as involved in the derring-do of an attractive pod of enthusiasts as they have adventures, but what came across was a bonding weekend for a team of environmental-health officers.
Worse than the empty Sea of Cortez, worse than the horrible presenters, was the utterly bereft script. A sea of intellectual plankton, an ocean of clichés, truisms, non-sequiturs and the mood music of happy-feely words. It was chronically embarrassing. The hug-a-halibut environmental message was depressingly childish; the anthropological element, showing us happy Indians collecting clams by hand then wagging a finger, telling us this was a model of sustainability for the world, was cretinously idiotic. Altogether, it was dispiriting and depressing.
One of the presenters is the grandson of Jacques Cousteau, the man who first drew our attention to the ecological degradation of the seas and invented television's attitude to nature. The difference between then and now couldn't be better illustrated than by the difference in these two generations. Grandpa Cousteau led what looked like legionnaires in Speedos to discover an element that was as strange and awe-inspiring as outer space. Grandson Cousteau has a beach-bum American accent and talks with a dim sentimentality, with meaning-neutered exclamations about his feelings. Things are great, because he's seen them. They're marvellous, because he's here. It's the hideous solipsism of the vain gap-year blog, and this is what you get when you make co-productions with the Discovery Channel.
When the rough cut for the first episode of Oceans dropped into the commissioning editor's DVD player, he must have cried the Pacific. It is titanic, sink-with-all-hands television and was spectacular in its empty nothingness. They must have shot an albatross on day one. This is a big, expensive co-production that has come back with film that looks like a second-marriage honeymoon from the Red Sea. The bar for underwater nature has been set pretty high by The Blue Planet and that mermaid lady who holds her breath and frots dolphins. Failing to get any aquatic film of interesting fish, they decided to point the camera at each other. The crew were an overexcited group of challengeable "experts", as vocal and coherent as seagulls and about as likeably watchable as a get-to-know-you party of Cornish swingers in a Jacuzzi. I can just about understand that the idea was to get as involved in the derring-do of an attractive pod of enthusiasts as they have adventures, but what came across was a bonding weekend for a team of environmental-health officers.
Worse than the empty Sea of Cortez, worse than the horrible presenters, was the utterly bereft script. A sea of intellectual plankton, an ocean of clichés, truisms, non-sequiturs and the mood music of happy-feely words. It was chronically embarrassing. The hug-a-halibut environmental message was depressingly childish; the anthropological element, showing us happy Indians collecting clams by hand then wagging a finger, telling us this was a model of sustainability for the world, was cretinously idiotic. Altogether, it was dispiriting and depressing.
One of the presenters is the grandson of Jacques Cousteau, the man who first drew our attention to the ecological degradation of the seas and invented television's attitude to nature. The difference between then and now couldn't be better illustrated than by the difference in these two generations. Grandpa Cousteau led what looked like legionnaires in Speedos to discover an element that was as strange and awe-inspiring as outer space. Grandson Cousteau has a beach-bum American accent and talks with a dim sentimentality, with meaning-neutered exclamations about his feelings. Things are great, because he's seen them. They're marvellous, because he's here. It's the hideous solipsism of the vain gap-year blog, and this is what you get when you make co-productions with the Discovery Channel.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The recently televised BBC series "Oceans" was a disaster and this book is the obligatory work which automatically follow such events. The front cover describes that series of programmes as a "Landmark" series. They were no such thing!
Just any experienced diver.
I was first contacted about this series over 3 years before the final episodes were screened on British television. I warned of a number of pitfalls and the BBC promptly fell into most of them. I was then asked to submit considerable material on those aspects which I knew in great detail. Consequently, my name appears on the "credits" of certain episodes. My submissions included text and photographs and came from my extensive experience and detailed knowledge as an award-winning shipwreck historian.
At no time did the BBC ever mention a book to me or indicate that my work might also appear in anything other than the television project itself. Nevertheless, my own copyrighted words have been reproduced verbatim in this book and are credited to others! I was not even given the simple courtesy of an acknowledgement.
Such behaviour begs the questions; How much more of this book is based on the work of people who are not credited as the authors? How many of those are unaware that that their work has been so used?
Personally, I have reached the conclusion that none of the so-called "facts" in this book may be trusted.
This review has never been challenged by BBC Books - all they do is occasionally place a vote against it.
NM
Just any experienced diver.
I was first contacted about this series over 3 years before the final episodes were screened on British television. I warned of a number of pitfalls and the BBC promptly fell into most of them. I was then asked to submit considerable material on those aspects which I knew in great detail. Consequently, my name appears on the "credits" of certain episodes. My submissions included text and photographs and came from my extensive experience and detailed knowledge as an award-winning shipwreck historian.
At no time did the BBC ever mention a book to me or indicate that my work might also appear in anything other than the television project itself. Nevertheless, my own copyrighted words have been reproduced verbatim in this book and are credited to others! I was not even given the simple courtesy of an acknowledgement.
Such behaviour begs the questions; How much more of this book is based on the work of people who are not credited as the authors? How many of those are unaware that that their work has been so used?
Personally, I have reached the conclusion that none of the so-called "facts" in this book may be trusted.
This review has never been challenged by BBC Books - all they do is occasionally place a vote against it.
NM
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Nice book, don't believe the negative reviews
I watched the TV series and, unlike some, quite enjoyed it, but that wasn't why I bought this book.
There are some very negative reviews for this book, but they all have... Read more
There are some very negative reviews for this book, but they all have... Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. Saxby
very good with lots of illustrations
Lovely book though rather too advanced for my 9 year old so will keep it for him but well worth the buy
Published 17 months ago by Mrs. F. Page-morris
Excellent series
Earlier review is completely unfair to this series. Although lacking the resources of the 'Blue Planet', for anyone actually interested in marine life, ecology and diving this far... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2010 by M. J. Hall
Better than the TV series, but...
The book is a bit better than the really bad TV series. In the book there are a few useful facts and some amazing pictures of sperm whales! Read more
Published on 11 April 2009 by Jonas Thing
oceans anne laking
Excellent book great descriptions and superb photos all the way through thoughrly recommended.
Published on 29 Jan 2009 by NEIL ADKIN
Book matches the tv programme in quality
I bought this book for my daughter's christmas as she was fascinated by the programme recently shown on the BBC. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2008 by Ms. A. M. Thomas
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