Marine researchers are discovering new ocean creatures every day, especially at its deepest depths. Here comes a new title about some of the most unusual marine life forms. The book organizes the creatures into three parts based on where they live in the ocean. Informative captions accompany the 90 gorgeous photographs of otherworldly creatures.

Part 1: Surface Waters of the Ocean at Night: The Blackwater Vertical Migrators

• In images taken by dedicated blackwater photographers Linda Ianniello and Susan Mears, these mostly larval creatures haunt the near-surface waters making vertical migrations every night to feed.

Part 2: Middle to Deep Dark Waters: Masters of the Language of Light

• In this perpetual night, survival is a matter of being able to understand and process light signals, some in different colors, some flashing, some faint… the most sophisticated use of bioluminescence on Earth. The sea creatures here are small with big eyes and even larger mouths with extraordinarily sharp teeth.

Part 3. The Continental Shelf to the Abyssal Plain: The Bottom Dwellers

• This bottom of the sea has fewer fish and is populated by such alien-like creatures as no-eyed or tripod fish, sea cucumbers, as well as basket stars, crabs and worms with species varying by depth and location.

The photographs were taken in the ocean by expert divers and submariners, most of whom are both scientists and underwater photographers. The images display the creatures vividly against a background as black as the ocean depths.

Strange Sea Creatures received an Honorable Mention in the Best Children’s-Young Adult Nonfiction Book category in the American Society of Journalists and Authors Annual Writing Awards (2021).

Edition: 2020