WORLD OCEAN CENSUS: A GLOBAL SURVEY OF MARINE LIFE.

WORLD OCEAN CENSUS: A GLOBAL SURVEY OF MARINE LIFE. BY DARLENE TREW CRIST, GAIL SCOWCROFT and JAMES M. HARDING Jr., with a Foreword by SYLVIA A. EARLE. Richmond Hill Ontario: Firefly Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-55407-434-1. 256 p., maps, b&w and colour illus., glossary, further reading, index. Hardbound. US$40.00.

This beautiful book in coffee table format aims to reveal the story behind and initial outcomes of the Census of Marine Life, the effort of a global network of researchers who have been studying the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life for almost a decade. It promises to be a timely and compelling read for all concerned with life in the oceans.

For those with a natural curiosity about our ocean planet, this new book by an award-winning author and two experienced marine educators is indeed timely and well-written. Superbly designed, the book evokes the majesty and mystery of life in the oceans through the use of captivating photographs, novel graphics, and easy-to-read text. Thorough and consistently high editorial standards are readily apparent. The only publishing error observed was an inaccurate transposition from metric to imperial units in the caption of a photo on page 209.

The three main parts of the book reflect the three framing questions of the Census of Marine Life: (1) What lived in the oceans? (2) What lives in the oceans? and (3) What will live in the oceans? The two chapters in Part One emphasize the challenges of marine exploration and so set a superb foundation for describing why we know what we know, how we know that, and why more knowledge is needed. To date, the Census has engaged more than 2000 scientists and generated more than $500 million in funding support--a massive undertaking without parallel in the history of marine science.

Chapter One ("The Known, the Unknown and the Unknowable") is a very useful addition to basic marine science education and the perfect foundation for later sections of the book. It features a set of well-designed graphics that explain fundamental concepts, such as circulation in the world's oceans, and outline the structure of ocean realms. Unfortunately, Chapter 2 (Painting a Picture of the Past") is nowhere near as compelling. The picture it paints of the past is more of a thumbnail sketch than a true artist's rendering. It is understandably hard to achieve in just 14 illustrated pages the accomplishment of other texts, such as Callum Roberts' (2007) superb look in the rearview mirror. However, the erratic selection of case studies, the lack of adequate sociological and economic perspectives, and the somewhat uncritical commentary in this chapter undermine its utility.

Part Two is the meat and potatoes of the book. These six chapters summarize the state of knowledge about life in the oceans, using a diversity of case studies and thematic perspectives. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 ("Expanding the Use of Technology," "Animals as Ocean Observers," and "Disappearing Ice Oceans") provide great insights into new technologies such as video plankton recorders (VPR) and the use of animals as environmental monitors. These discussions enrich our understanding of the dynamic nature of ocean species and key ecological phenomena in ways that past books of this type failed to achieve.

However, some of the cases presented were just too short or inadequately researched to be useful even to lay readers. Of particular concern is the 2005 Census case study on tracking the migration of the sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus); the authors contend (p. 115) that the study reports the "longest-ever recorded animal migration." While impressive, the 62 400 km recorded round trip of this species is actually shorter than the long-known migration of the arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), which covers 70 900 km.

Chapter 5 focuses on disappearing ice and concludes with a neat comparison of the polar opposites. For readers of Arctic, this will likely be one of the least satisfying parts of the book as it contains only a very narrow sample of global cold water marine research currently underway and is organized in a somewhat disjointed fashion. As in some earlier chapters, one is not quite sure what the intent of this chapter is, other than to highlight in a broad sense that polar waters are important, poorly known, and changing.

Chapters 6 through 8 ("Unexpected Diversity at the Edges of the Sea," "Unexplored Ecosystems: Vents, Seeps, Seamounts and Abyssal Plains," and "Unraveling the Mystery of New Life-Forms") provide the most new knowledge from the Census. The authors clearly delight in explaining how the Census has yielded new discoveries in these areas, as well as new insights into old knowledge. The chapters are enriched by stories from field scientists about discoveries such as a species of shrimp (genus Laurentaeglyphea) believed extinct in the Eocene and a new species of bio-luminescent siphonophore.

Part Three of the book poses the question, "What will live in the ocean?" It comprises two rather scant chapters. Chapter 9 ("Forecasting the Future") is a mix of stories about the animals most at risk and the threats to ocean diversity posed by fisheries. Chapter 10 ("The Path Forward"), a relatively short essay, reiterates those threats and seeks to make the case as to how the Census will make a difference to our understanding, and presumably ultimately the management, of the oceans.

Unfortunately, these last two chapters are a disappointing end to this otherwise commendable book. They fail the "so what" test. At the end of all the good lead-up work done in Parts One and Two, one would have expected the final section of the book to lay out the significance of the Census work more cogently. One might even have expected the authors to provide a vision for how work undertaken by the Census could be carried forward in both research and management applications. Instead, they missed an opportunity to reinforce the importance of the Census to the management decisions we will need to make in future.

And so would I recommend this work? My answer is conditional. The intended audience for this book was never really made clear. Presumably folks involved in the Census project are a core target. The authors imply that by extension, the wider marine community should therefore be interested in the work. However, given the dated nature of much of the information presented (most results are preliminary and current through 2007 only) and the somewhat narrow sample of the breadth of Census work, it is unlikely that specialized marine scientists would acquire this book. And for the reasons outlined above, the book is equally unlikely to be of much value to decision makers.

A book like this one does have great potential relevance to student scientists and would traditionally have secured a place in school and college libraries, but given the prevalence of more accessible e-media and the limits of library budgets, this book now occupies an uncomfortable literary niche: it is a useful interim record rather than an enduring vital reference. Perhaps the work could have been made more relevant to the marine scientist/education community and even to decision makers if it had included more references to online documentation of the Census project (http://www.coml.org/). Better still, an e-media companion CD or web link, using multimedia formats such as those employed by Wolanski (2000) and others, would have enabled readers to view interviews with researchers, learn more about their field data-collection activities, or perhaps even access social media links (Facebook or similar) that follow up on the work of the Census.

Those reservations reflect a growing concern about the efficacy of traditional published media more than a criticism of this particular book. This book has taken a great first step in making the initial outcomes of the Census of Marine Life more accessible. But so much more can and should be done with Census results if we are ultimately to make the case for expanding marine science investments and improving scientific input for decision making about the future use of our oceans.

REFERENCE

Roberts, CM. 2007. The unnatural history of the sea. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Wolanski, E. 2000. Oceanographic processes of coral reefs: Physical and biological links in the Great Barrier Reef. London: CRC Press.

Ian M. Dutton

President & CEO

Alaska SeaLife Center

301 Railway Avenue

Seward, Alaska 99664, USA

[email protected]

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Author:	Dutton, Ian M.
Publication:	Arctic
Article Type:	Book review
Date:	Sep 1, 2010
Words:	1388
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