Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness

Naturalist Attenborough (A Life on Our Planet) joins forces with Butfield (Earthshot)—cofounder of the environmental documentary production company Studio Silverback—to provide an awe-inspiring exploration of the open ocean, kelp forests, and six other marine biomes. Examining the ecological interactions that structure each habitat, the authors explain how coral reefs depend on the fish that live inside their many “nooks, holes, and crevices” and eat seaweed that might otherwise block out the sunlight coral need to survive. The authors highlight the remarkable ways animals have adapted to their environment, noting, for instance, how the cock-eyed squid evolved asymmetrical eyes—the larger of which looks upward to “spot prey against the very dim light from the surface” while the smaller one searches for bioluminescent creatures below—to survive in the deep ocean. Such trivia intrigues, and the authors balance alarming overviews of how humans are disrupting ocean ecosystems with uplifting stories of people working to prevent such harms. For instance, the authors lament how excessive trawling off England’s southern coast since the 1980s has hollowed out the kelp forests that once flourished there and recount how free diver Eric Smith teamed up with wildlife documentarian Sarah Cunliffe in a successful effort to persuade U.K. officials to ban trawling near the shore in 2021. Attenborough’s admirers will savor this. Illus. (May)