Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-246).

Provides armchair entree to gripping adventure, cutting-edge science, and an intimate understanding of our deep blue home. At the center of this penetrating exploration of the ocean and the creatures dependent on it is Julia Whitty's description of the three-dimensional ocean river, far more powerful than the Nile or the Amazon, encircling the globe. It's a watery force connected to the earth's climate control and so to the eventual fate of the human race. Whitty's 30-year career as a documentary filmmaker and diver has given her sustained access to the scientists dedicated to the study of an astonishing range of ocean life, from the physiology of "extremophile" life forms to the strategies of nesting seabirds to the ecology of "whale falls" (what happens upon the death of a behemoth). No stranger to extreme adventure, Whitty travels the oceanside and underwater world from the Sea of Cortez to Newfoundland to Antarctica.--From publisher description.