DEEP WATER by James Bradley

DEEP WATER by James Bradley

Did you know that fish sing up a cacophony on moonlit nights?

Have you considered that many aquatic species display unique behaviours in an intelligence not dissimilar to what we associate with more supposedly wiser species like dolphins, parrots and dogs? This book is a minefield of such wisdoms and invites you to explore the ocean and its many niches in a new light.

I had just finished Australian marine scientist’s Charlie Veron’s wonderful biography on our reefs when a marine science teacher James Dick shoved Deep Water my way. I have learnt so much from these two books. While a greater surface area of the world is covered by the oceanic savannas than terrestrial domains above sea level, the importance of the ocean is often thought of being disconnected to life on land.  But we have encroached into these hidden realms with impacts drifting far from our minds, ones which are having huge consequences for the life that lives there.

Did you know that industry plans to mine the ocean’s deepwater vents for rare minerals?  What implications does this have for our planet? Our ‘noise’ alone is causing trauma, in some cases death in species whose intelligence and social connections are not so less dissimilar to our own. Well, intelligence for humans is definitely blunted by our quest for greed!  ‘Our’ use or misuse of the ocean is covered well and widely in this book of marine wisdom, starting with the sour history of world slavery. The neglectful practices within the shipping industry are pulled apart, and how best to prepare for wind assisted, clean technology, also gets the nod. The corruption of committees and corporations that oversee industrial practices occurring on the high seas and the way history has dealt with them also takes shape.

Like Veron’s interesting book A Life Underwater, we jump overboard and visit coral reefs, where many impacts due to a warming ocean is seeing the dismissal of these hugely important ecosystems, rich marine habitats which have been part of the planet’s journey in various reincarnations for the past 240 million years.

This book outlines ‘hope’ in the entrepreneurial endeavour and where action groups unite, but really it is a grim tale that must be shed in all its prophetic gore. Jimmy, the marine science teacher who keeps laundering me with reading material, viewed Sir David Attenborough’s new work Oceans recently and he loved it! Amongst the dazzling visuals, he suggested that it provides for some optimistic scenarios. And I know that many feel this planet will be all the poorer when this guardian of nature leaves this plain. But with Deep Water, does James Bradley suggest it is too late for our oceans, a lost limb to humanity? A one-time Sydney journalist who also formulates themes from poetry to crime, the author pens well his intentions providing case studies in locations particularly within the Australian local, where he allows you to be in the moment, to witness the chaos unfolding.

This is an important book. It is massively well-researched, while allowing the reader to explore the importance of the depths without needing to fall beyond the light.  

Sadly, our fish sing less often now….

DEEP WATER https://tinyurl.com/2c683ce4

Sourced via The Natural History Museum London