THE BRILLIANT ABYSS

An investigative foray into the world of deep-sea waters with a veteran marine biologist.

“This is without a doubt a golden era for deep-sea exploration,” writes Scales in this beguiling journey into the ocean’s deep, a wondrous landscape full of mystery and adventure: “Here lie entire ecosystems shut away in the dark that are based around the chemical powers of microbes, where worms are nine feet long, crabs dance, and snails grow suits of shiny metal armor.” At the same time, however, the ever increasing knowledge of the abyss leads to further evidence that there is money to be made by harvesting the resources held there. Scales begins by describing the deep sea’s uniqueness and biodiversity. She examines many of its miraculous denizens, such as the “bone-eating snot flower,” found off the coast of Sweden; the ultra-black fish; and gossamer worms, which “wriggle elegantly in tight pirouettes through the water.” Scales also discusses such features as seamounts, coral beds, and hydrothermal vents as well as chemical reactions such as bioluminescence and chemosynthesis (the dark equivalent of photosynthesis). Tracking the massive circulatory patterns of the ocean currents, the author demonstrates how they are disrupted by the forces of climate change, and she looks into possible medical advances that could originate from the ocean floor, including chemotherapy ingredients, genetic-testing materials, and new antibiotics. As in her two previous books, Spirals in Time and Eyes of the Shoal, Scales offers crisp, engaging prose, linking everything together in an accessible, entertaining manner. With plenty of scientific research to back her up, the author displays legitimate concerns about a wide variety of maladies, including plastic waste, raw sewage, oil spills, radioactive elements, and deep-sea mining, which “pose[s] dangerous risks to biodiversity and the environment, on timescales and intensities that cannot yet be fully quantified but could be catastrophic and permanent.”

A captivating nature tour and a convincing warning that “the deep needs decisive, unconditional protection.”