Discoveries of the Census of Marine Life Making Ocean Life Count

Over the 10-year course of the recently completed Census of Marine Life, a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations has collaborated to improve our understanding of marine biodiversity - past, present, and future. Providing insight into this remarkable project, this book explains the rationale behind the Census and highlights some of its most important and dramatic findings, illustrated with full-color photographs throughout. It explores how new technologies and partnerships have contributed to greater knowledge of marine life, from unknown species and habitats, to migration routes and distribution patterns, and to a better appreciation of how the oceans are changing. Looking to the future, it identifies what needs to be done to close the remaining gaps in our knowledge and provide information that will enable us to better manage resources, conserve diversity, reverse habitat losses, and respond to global climate change.

Foreword; Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Unknown. Why a Census?: 1. Planet Ocean; 2. The ocean environments; 3. A riot of species from microbes to whales; Part II. The Known. What has the Census Learned?: 4. New ways of seeing deeper and farther; 5. Around the ocean rim; 6. At the ends of the Earth; 7. Ocean life in motion; 8. Into the deep; 9. Changing ocean; Part III. From Unknown to Unknowable: 10. Planet Ocean beyond 2010; Index.

Paul Snelgrove is a Professor in Memorial University of Newfoundland's Ocean Sciences Centre and Biology Department. He chaired the Synthesis Group of the Census of Marine Life that has overseen the final phase of the program. He is now Director of the NSERC Canadian Healthy Oceans Network, a research collaboration of 65 marine scientists from coast to coast in Canada that continues to census ocean life.