A Journey to the Depths of the Ocean

As divers, we marvel at what we see underwater, though most of us seldom get below 100 feet. However, as Susan Casey writes in The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean, "the deeper you go, the stranger things get." And boy, do they get strange.

Casey's fascinating book takes us on her Neptune submersible journey to extraordinary depths to view black smoking hydrothermal vents, stunning two-hundred-foot-tall white peaks, and all the creatures - rattails, weirdfish, the robust assfish, the dumbo octopus - that live almost as deep as Everest is high.

Thanks to Casey's vivid prose, I got caught up in her tale of deep-sea exploration's fascinating history and adventure, and especially American billionaire Victor Vesko, who has invested millions to research and build these vessels, then pilot them to the greatest depths of all five of the world's oceans. No ordinary guy, Vesko has also climbed the highest peaks on all seven continents. Casey chronicles the details of these deep voyages and even joins Vesko to go deep in cramped quarters and freezing temperatures.

A few months ago, I was hooked on the hourly drama of the Titan, which imploded while carrying wealthy tourists to view the Titanic. Reading Casey's book, I was hooked on how the colorful scientists and explorers she meets are exploring the depths the right way. If you've read any of her books - The Devil's Teeth, The Wave, Voices in the Ocean - you know she's the master storyteller of ocean science.

And she issues a grave warning. Today, giant companies are fighting for the right to mine the ocean floor; wherever they go, they will destroy the life and beauty of it before we ever get to know it. You can learn more about that here: https://tinyurl.com/3wexsb5n

You may buy this book from my favor-ite independent bookstore, the Four-Eyed Frog, in the tiny Northern California oceanfront town of Gualala Order the hardbound here for $32, plus postage www.foureyedfrog.com/book/9780385545570