Beneath Cold Seas

Winner, Design and Artistic Merit category, 2012 National Outdoor Book Awards This book is a work of art from every possible angle—from the exquisite photographs, to the book's design, to its flawless printing and production process. There's no other way to describe it: David Hall has created a masterpiece. . . . A complete and moving immersion in the breathtaking underwater world of the Pacific Northwest. —National Outdoor Book Awards Breathtaking photographs and text by award-winning photographer David Hall capture the magnificent marine life of North America's West Coast. The Pacific Coast of North America features the most diverse and visually spectacular marine life of any temperate or cold-water ecosystem on the planet. From tiny, candy-striped shrimp to the giant Pacific octopus, from alabaster nudibranchs, luminous moon jellyfish, orchid sea stars, and wolf-eels to Steller sea lions, white-sided dolphins, and so much more, David Hall's stunning underwater photographs—themselves works of art—reveal both the symbiotic and the predatory relationships in this web of life. Through state-of-the-art camera equipment and lighting, he has captured our underwater world in a way that will surprise even scuba divers already familiar with it and amaze the rest of us. An introduction by Sarika Cullis-Suzuki, who has lived on the West Coast of North America almost her entire life and has studied its marine life as well as the fisheries of the high seas, describes her personal experiences with this amazing part of the world and discusses the conservation issues facing this rich yet vulnerable ecosystem. Christopher Newbert, author of the bestselling photography book Within a Rainbowed Sea, provides the foreword. Beneath Cold Seas will appeal to a wide audience, including divers and beachcombers; fishers; marine life enthusiasts and scientists; tourists, including cruise ship and ferry passengers; and anyone who appreciates beautiful photography. Although there are many excellent underwater photography books on tropical locations, this is the first to feature the marine life of the Pacific Northwest and one of the few that focuses on any cold-water location. Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.

In Beneath Cold Seas, David Hall takes us into the underwater world of the Pacific ocean, home of the most diverse and visually spectacular marine life of any temperate or cold-water ecosystem on the planet. From tiny, candy-striped shrimp to giant Pacific octopus, alabaster nudibranches to rockfish schooling among kelp, and orchid sea stars to white-sided dolphins, Hall's stunning photographs reveal both the symbiotic and predatory relationships that can be found in these waters. State-of the-art camera equipment and special lighting allow Hall to capture this underwater world in ways that will surprise even those most familiar with it and amaze the rest of us. Sarika Cullis-Suzuki discusses the conservation issues facing this rich yet vulnerable ecosystem.

Describes the cold water marine life of New England, California, Washington and British Columbia. Includes numerous colour photographs.

An Anthology of Contemporary Maritime Adventures

The Cold War was the first major conflict between superpowers in which victory and defeat were unambiguously determined without the firing of a shot. Without the shield of a strong, silent deterrent or the intellectual sword of espionage beneath the sea, that war could not have been won. John P. Craven was a key figure in the Cold War beneath the sea. As chief scientist of the Navy's Special Projects Office, which supervised the Polaris missile system, then later as head of the Deep Submergence Systems Project (DSSP) and the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle program (DSRV), both of which engaged in a variety of clandestine undersea projects, he was intimately involved with planning and executing America's submarine-based nuclear deterrence and submarine-based espionage activities during the height of the Cold War. Craven was considered so important by the Soviets that they assigned a full-time KGB agent to spy on him. Some of Craven's highly classified activities have been mentioned in such books as Blind Man's Bluff, but now he gives us his own insights into the deadly cat-and-mouse game that U.S. and Soviet forces played deep in the world's oceans. Craven tells riveting stories about the most treacherous years of the Cold War. In 1956 Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine and the backbone of the Polaris ballistic missile system, was only days or even hours from sinking due to structural damage of unknown origin. Craven led a team of experts to diagnose the structural flaw that could have sent the sub to the bottom of the ocean, taking the Navy's missile program with it. Craven offers insight into the rivalry between the advocates of deterrence (with whom he sided) and those military men and scientists, such as Edward Teller, who believed that the United States had to prepare to fight and win a nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union. He describes the argument that raged in the Navy over the reasons for the tragic loss of the submarine Thresher, and tells the astonishing story of the hunt for the rogue Soviet sub that became the model for The Hunt for Red October -- including the amazing discovery the Navy made when it eventually found the sunken sub. Craven takes readers inside the highly secret DSSP and DSRV programs, both of which offered crucial cover for sophisticated intelligence operations. Both programs performed important salvage operations in addition to their secret espionage activities, notably the recovery of a nuclear bomb off Palomares, Spain. He describes how the Navy's success at deep-sea recovery operations led to the takeover of the entire program by the CIA during the Nixon administration. A compelling tale of intrigue, both within our own government and between the U.S. and Soviet navies, The Silent War is an enthralling insider's account of how the submarine service kept the peace during the dangerous days of the Cold War.

Hailed as heart stopping and almost unbearably suspenseful, Edward L. Beach's third novel is set fifteen years after the end of World War II as the US Navy converts its fleet of conventional submarines to nuclear-powered ships. The book focuses on the USS Cushing, whose sixteen missile silos carry more explosive power than all the munitions used in both world wars. The submarine is on a secret mission to the Arctic Ocean to determine whether her missiles are effective when fired from beneath the ice. When the Cushing is incapacitated with a suspicious Russian sub lurking in the vicinity, the scene is set for a dramatic novel rich in all the technical detail and submarine lore that have entertained millions of readers of Captain Beach's other fictional works.

"Daniel Pauly is a friend whose work has inspired me for years." —Ted Danson, actor, ocean activist, and co-author of Oceana "This wonderfully personal and accessible book by the world’s greatest living fisheries biologist summarizes and expands on the causes of collapse and the essential actions that will be required to rebuild fish stocks for future generations.” —Dr. Jeremy Jackson, ocean scientist and author of Breakpoint The world’s fisheries are in crisis. Their catches are declining, and the stocks of key species, such as cod and bluefin tuna, are but a small fraction of their previous abundance, while others have been overfished almost to extinction. The oceans are depleted and the commercial fishing industry increasingly depends on subsidies to remain afloat. In these essays, award-winning biologist Dr. Daniel Pauly offers a thought-provoking look at the state of today’s global fisheries—and a radical way to turn it around. Starting with the rapid expansion that followed World War II, he traces the arc of the fishing industry’s ensuing demise, offering insights into how and why it has failed. With clear, convincing prose, Dr. Pauly draws on decades of research to provide an up-to-date assessment of ocean health and an analysis of the issues that have contributed to the current crisis, including globalization, massive underreporting of catch, and the phenomenon of “shifting baselines,” in which, over time, important knowledge is lost about the state of the natural world. Finally, Vanishing Fish provides practical recommendations for a way forward—a vision of a vibrant future where small-scale fisheries can supply the majority of the world’s fish. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute

From ugly eels to gigantic worms, mysterious narwhals to majestic penguins, learn about the creatures that survive the most extreme ocean environments in this new title from the exciting In Focus: Oceans series. Did you know that walruses use their tusks as tools to dig up food on the seafloor? Or that the giant squid has the largest eyes of any living creature? And did you know that there's a deep-sea octopus named after Dumbo? Full-color photographs, informative text and a diverse range of content makes this In Focus series the perfect introduction to ocean life.