In this masterful account in the spirit of Bill Bryson and Ian Frazier, a longtime deep-sea diver masterfully weaves together the science and history of Earth's last remaining frontier: the sea.
In an age of unprecedented exploration and innovation, our oceans remain largely unknown, and endlessly fascinating: full of mystery, danger, beauty, and inspiration. In Oceans Deepcelebrates the daring pioneers who tested the limits of what the human body can endure under water: free divers able to reach 300 feet on a single breath; engineers and scientists who uncovered the secrets of decompression; teenagers who built their own diving gear from discarded boilers and garden hoses in the 1930s; saturation divers who lived under water for weeks at a time in the 1960s; and the trailblazing men who voluntarily breathed experimental gases at pressures sufficient to trigger insanity.
Tracing both the little-known history and exciting future of how we travel and study the depths, Streever's captivating journey includes seventeenth-century leather-hulled submarines, their nuclear-powered descendants, a workshop where luxury submersibles are built for billionaire clients, and robots capable of roving unsupervised between continents, revolutionizing access to the ocean.
In this far-flung trip to the wild, night-dark place of shipwrecks, trapped submariners, oil wells, innovative technologies, and people willing to risk their lives while challenging the deep, we discover all the adventures our seas have to offer -- and why they are in such dire need of conservation.
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"Bill Streever has written a gripping and important book about the sea,its science, and the technologies we've invented to begin to experience it, butalso about our own humanity-and our future. I loved following him on thisextraordinary deep dive into the largest and still most mysterious realm ofthis incredible planet we all share—JuliBerwald, author of Spineless"
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A buoyant, at times thrilling, account of the deep sea experience, perfect for divers and other lovers of life beneath the waves.
— Kirkus ReviewStreever tells a story that captures human fascination with the ocean, and encourages readers to become more interested in what lies beneath the waves.
— Shelf AwarenessUltimately, this timely and richly told story became something the author did not intend: an invaluable survey of how much damage has
been done and how much we will lose if we don't protect the seas.
— BooklistA broad-spectrum examination of underwater adventuring...Mr. Streever's writing is lucid on subjects ranging from gas chemistry to dredging to underwater robotics.
— Wall Street JournalA fascinating...journey for readers into a little-known world.
— Anchorage Daily NewsA fine writer with genuine sea credentials...Streever's book makes clear that the deep, though much closer to us, is still tantalizingly distant.
— Natural History MagazineIn this homage-cum-history of human endeavor in the ocean depths, biologist, writer and diver Bill Streever brings to light a region less explored than the Moon.
— Nature MagazineWith a real knack for storytelling, Streever evocatively puts the reader in the helmets, flippers, and submersibles of sea explorers throughout history...Streever crafts a book to be enjoyed by divers and general readers alike.
— Publishers WeeklyIn Oceans Deep combines painstaking research with narrative flair and a genuine love for the subject...It is both an education and a terrific read—ChrisWright journalist and author of No MoreWorlds to Conquer
A beautifully written and thrilling exploration of humanity's place in the depths by a master interpreter who has spent a lifetime face-to-face with the shipwrecks, animals, machines, daring souls, and enduring mysteries that populate this gorgeous, hidden world.
— RobertKurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers and Rocket MenExquisitely researched and written, I highly recommend In Oceans Deep—Jonathan White, author of Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean
Bill Streever takes us on an entertaining and richly informative journey into the marine frontier. I recommend this book to anyone who may wish to be awed, and perhaps disturbed, by the depths to which humans will go to explore it.
— JonathanBalcombe, author of What a Fish KnowsBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Jay Snyder is a voice actor, voice director, and script adapter who studied acting at the Julliard School in New York City. He is best known as the voice of Yugi Muto from the Japanese manga television series, Yu-Gi-Oh! His audiobook narrations have earned three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he was a finalist for the Audie Award for Best Fiction Narration in 2015.