48 books like Ocean Outbreak

By Drew Harvell,

Here are 48 books that Ocean Outbreak fans have personally recommended if you like Ocean Outbreak. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of A Life Underwater

Peter F. Sale Author Of Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms Under the Sea

From my list on on being a coral reef scientist.

Why am I passionate about this?

Peter Sale has managed to spend an entire career exploring coral reefs, perhaps the most fascinating ecosystem on this planet.  From 1964 when he commenced a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, through faculty positions in Australia, the USA, and Canada, and with a final stint with the United Nations University, he has been able to explore the wonders of coral reef systems in many places around the world.  His life has been rewarding, because of the new science he did, the students and colleagues he worked with, and the sheer joy he experienced diving on reefs. His many technical writings include the 1991 book, The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs, which became a classic among reef researchers, students, and some sport divers.

Peter's book list on on being a coral reef scientist

Peter F. Sale Why did Peter love this book?

Dr. John E.N. Veron, called Charlie by everyone who knows him, is an Australian coral reef scientist. He is also the person who single-handedly sorted out the names of the corals in the 1980s by emphasizing the study of corals in their natural habitats on reefs. Prior taxonomy, based on dried, cleaned bits of skeletons, had resulted in much confusion given the considerable plasticity of the form of corals growing in different reef habitats. This book is Charlie’s account of his life as a marine scientist, from his earliest exploring of rocky shores near Sydney to his numerous expeditions to reefs around the world over the course of his career. 

His love of the natural world, his curiosity and willingness to take risks, and his dogged determination in solving scientific puzzles stand out. So too do his humor, his down-to-earth Australian-ness, and his loving respect for corals, for reefs, and…

By Charlie Veron,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Life Underwater as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hailed by David Attenborough, proclaimed a second Charles Darwin, John 'Charlie' Veron almost didn't become a scientist. Disheartened at school, by chance he won a scholarship to a university where he could indulge his passion for the natural world. It was scuba diving that returned him to his childhood love of marine life, and led to a career as a self-taught coral specialist, a field he revolutionised. His discoveries include an original concept of what a species is, and the mechanism that dives their evolution - matters that lie at the heart of conservation. He has named more coral species…


Book cover of Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia

Peter F. Sale Author Of Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms Under the Sea

From my list on on being a coral reef scientist.

Why am I passionate about this?

Peter Sale has managed to spend an entire career exploring coral reefs, perhaps the most fascinating ecosystem on this planet.  From 1964 when he commenced a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, through faculty positions in Australia, the USA, and Canada, and with a final stint with the United Nations University, he has been able to explore the wonders of coral reef systems in many places around the world.  His life has been rewarding, because of the new science he did, the students and colleagues he worked with, and the sheer joy he experienced diving on reefs. His many technical writings include the 1991 book, The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs, which became a classic among reef researchers, students, and some sport divers.

Peter's book list on on being a coral reef scientist

Peter F. Sale Why did Peter love this book?

There has been growing recognition that our scientific understanding of environmental matters can be enhanced if we would only listen to the wisdom of indigenous peoples. This recognition only occasionally leads to a serious effort by environmental scientists to learn from indigenous peoples. Dr. Robert Johannes was a tropical fisheries biologist who, in the mid-1970s, was well ahead of his time when he took time out of a busy academic career to spend a couple of years on tiny, remote islands in Palau, Micronesia to learn from elders how to catch fish. This book is a non-technical account of what he learned. It reveals the considerable depth of knowledge on fishes, their habits, and effective ways to catch them that Micronesian natives possessed, and it also reveals the humility and humanity of its author. 

After this experience, Johannes devoted the rest of his career to ensuring that traditional knowledge was…

By R.E. Johannes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Words of the Lagoon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Words of the Lagoon is an account of the pioneering work of a marine biologist to discover, test, and record the knowledge possessed by native fisherman of the Palau Islands of Micronesia.


Book cover of Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir

Peter F. Sale Author Of Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms Under the Sea

From my list on on being a coral reef scientist.

Why am I passionate about this?

Peter Sale has managed to spend an entire career exploring coral reefs, perhaps the most fascinating ecosystem on this planet.  From 1964 when he commenced a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, through faculty positions in Australia, the USA, and Canada, and with a final stint with the United Nations University, he has been able to explore the wonders of coral reef systems in many places around the world.  His life has been rewarding, because of the new science he did, the students and colleagues he worked with, and the sheer joy he experienced diving on reefs. His many technical writings include the 1991 book, The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs, which became a classic among reef researchers, students, and some sport divers.

Peter's book list on on being a coral reef scientist

Peter F. Sale Why did Peter love this book?

Dr. Callum Roberts is a British marine biologist who has worked primarily in marine conservation. Like many British coral reef scientists, he got his start in the Red Sea rather than the Caribbean or the Pacific. The cultures of the middle east can make reef research there just a little bit different than elsewhere. This book is his memoir of a wonderful life exploring coral reefs that began, surprisingly, in the wilds of Scotland and took shape once he began his undergraduate studies in 1980. By then our impacts on coral reefs were becoming quite stark and this book does not shrink from the bad news. But it also captures his sheer joy in exploring coral reefs, his good humor and creativity as he grows from young student to research leader, and his concern to do what he can to keep coral reefs with us.

By Callum Roberts,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Reef Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How did one of the world's preeminent marine conservation scientists fall in love with coral reefs? We first meet Callum as a young student who had never been abroad, spending a summer helping to map the unknown reefs of Saudi Arabia. From that moment, when Callum first cleared his goggles, he never looked back. He went on to survey Sharm al-Sheikh, and from there he would dive into the deep in the name of research all over the world, from Australia's imperiled Great Barrier Reef to the hardier reefs of the Caribbean.

Reef Life is filled with astonishing stories of…


Book cover of Coral Whisperers: Scientists on the Brink

Peter F. Sale Author Of Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms Under the Sea

From my list on on being a coral reef scientist.

Why am I passionate about this?

Peter Sale has managed to spend an entire career exploring coral reefs, perhaps the most fascinating ecosystem on this planet.  From 1964 when he commenced a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, through faculty positions in Australia, the USA, and Canada, and with a final stint with the United Nations University, he has been able to explore the wonders of coral reef systems in many places around the world.  His life has been rewarding, because of the new science he did, the students and colleagues he worked with, and the sheer joy he experienced diving on reefs. His many technical writings include the 1991 book, The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs, which became a classic among reef researchers, students, and some sport divers.

Peter's book list on on being a coral reef scientist

Peter F. Sale Why did Peter love this book?

Not a book written by a coral reef biologist, this is a book by a non-scientist about how coral reef scientists cope with the knowledge that our degradation of reef ecosystems around the world is close to terminal. Our impacts on reefs, through climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing, pollution, and many other forms of local disrespect have been going on ever since reef research really took off in the early 1960s, following the invention of SCUBA by Jacques Cousteau. Irus Braverman learned to dive in 1989 when she lived in Israel; the first reefs she saw were in the Red Sea. She loved diving, but it was only much later, 2015, when she began to wonder about what was happening to reefs, and how that might affect the scientists who have devoted their lives to exploring these captivating places. 

A series of interviews and some travel to reefs provided the…

By Irus Braverman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Coral Whisperers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In recent years, a catastrophic global bleaching event devastated many of the world's precious coral reefs. Working on the front lines of ruin, today's coral scientists are struggling to save these important coral reef ecosystems from the imminent threats of rapidly warming, acidifying, and polluted oceans. Coral Whisperers captures a critical moment in the history of coral reef science. Gleaning insights from over one hundred interviews with leading scientists and conservation managers, Irus Braverman documents a community caught in an existential crisis and alternating between despair and hope. In this important new book, corals emerge not only as signs and…


Book cover of The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs

Sandy Sheehy Author Of Imperiled Reef: The Fascinating, Fragile Life of a Caribbean Wonder

From my list on the amazing world of coral reefs.

Why am I passionate about this?

For more than four decades, Sandy Sheehy has been diving tropical coral reefs from the Caribbean to Australia. Starting when she was around five sitting in her pediatric dentist’s office where she noticed an aquarium stocked with colorful fish, her fascination with the underwater world has grown. Becoming a freelance journalist allowed her to call on experts and activists around the world to help her satisfy her curiosity and share what she learned.   

Sandy's book list on the amazing world of coral reefs

Sandy Sheehy Why did Sandy love this book?

That’s right: that Charles Darwin, the author of The Origin of the Species. Seventeen years before that ground-shaking book, he wrote what marine scientists tell me remains the definitive work on the structure of coral reefs. Forget the famous Punch caricature of the gray-haired man trailing a long beard and a chimpanzee and think of the youthful naturalist daring crashing waves to vault to the edge of a South Pacific fringe reef. In places his accounts read like True Adventures for Boys.   

By Charles Darwin, Thomas George Bonney,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Charles Darwin Collection

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the…


Book cover of The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs

Lisa L. Owens Author Of The Life Cycle of a Clown Fish

From my list on marine-life magic for children.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been an animal lover who's also interested in what makes different creatures tick: how they’ve evolved as living beings, where and how they exist, and what role any given one plays in our world at large. I also find bodies of water calming to gaze at, fun to splash in and sail on, and it’s intriguing to study them as ecosystems. Each type—from small transient sidewalk puddles to vast enduring seas—can support some form of animal life under the right circumstances. And, for me, the fact that we humans spend most of our time experiencing life on land makes marine life that much more mysterious and magical to learn and write about. 

Lisa's book list on marine-life magic for children

Lisa L. Owens Why did Lisa love this book?

This standout picture book biography shows how environmental scientist Ken Nedimyer’s lifelong love of the ocean eventually led to his quest to help save and restore the beautiful coral reefs of his native Florida and beyond.

Along the way, Messner’s gentle narrative reinforces the notion that all great efforts start with just one life, one moment, one idea, one step forward. And Forsythe’s equally gentle illustrations softly illuminate the worlds both above and below water.

By Kate Messner, Matthew Forsythe (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Brilliant Deep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

The Brilliant Deep is the proud recipient of the ALA Notable Children's Books Award, the NSTA-CBC Best STEM Trade Books Award, the Junior Library Guild Selection and the ILA Teacher's Choices.

All it takes is one: one coral gamete to start a colony in the ocean, one person to make a difference in the world, one idea to help us heal the earth. The ongoing conservation efforts to save and rebuild the world's coral reefs-with hammer and glue, and grafts of newly grown coral-are the living legacy of environmental scientist Ken Nedimyer, founder of the Coral Restoration Foundation.

In telling…


Book cover of Affinities: A Journey Through Images from The Public Domain Review

Brian D. Cohen Author Of Bestiary: A Book of Animal Poems & Prints

From my list on illustrated stories for grown-ups.

Why am I passionate about this?

I make prints and visual books. I founded Bridge Press, now in Kennebunk, Maine, 1989 to publish limited edition artist's books and etchings. The name of the press underscores the collaborative nature of book making. Visual books offered possibilities for the continuity, connection, and unfolding of images—each image is complete yet linked to every other through the structure of the book. Books seemed an ideal vehicle to assemble and connect my prints, to order and unfold a sequence of images, with defined and recurrent shapes, motifs, and composition, and to create a setting in which each image is complete yet linked to every other through the structure of the binding or enclosure.

Brian's book list on illustrated stories for grown-ups

Brian D. Cohen Why did Brian love this book?

An endlessly fascinating and extensive compendium of reproductions of photographs, diagrams, charts, maps, paintings bizarre, sublime, caustic, illuminating – from the ancients to the modern era. Each image retains something of its historical context, yet they are arrayed with a compelling visual logic by a brilliant visual editor.

By Adam Green,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Affinities as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An exploration of echoes and resonances across two millennia of visual culture, celebrating ten years of The Public Domain Review.

Gathering a remarkable collection of over 500 public domain images, Affinities is a carefully curated visual journey illuminating connections across more than two thousand years of image-making. Drawing on a decade of archival immersion at The Public Domain Review, the book has been assembled from a vast array of sources: from manuscripts to museum catalogues, ship logs to primers on Victorian magic. The images are arranged in a single captivating sequence which unfurls according to a dreamlike logic, through a…


Book cover of Professor Astro Cat's Deep-Sea Voyage

Mike Lowery Author Of Everything Awesome About Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures!

From my list on the ocean for kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

Besides being an avid sketchbook keeper, author, and illustrator, I also collect weird and random facts. In my Everything Awesome book series, I love discovering cool facts to share with readers about some of my favorite topics, including sharks, space, and dinosaurs.

Mike's book list on the ocean for kids

Mike Lowery Why did Mike love this book?

Ready for a deep dive to learn all about the world’s oceans?

Tag along with Professor Astro Cat and his friends as they explore from the seashore to the deepest depths of the oceans and everything in between. It's equally as much fun to visually enjoy this book's amazing illustrations as it is to devour all the fascinating facts!

By Dominic Walliman, Ben Newman (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Professor Astro Cat's Deep-Sea Voyage as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

Where did all the water on our planet come from? How deep is the ocean? What exactly is a fish?

Find out all of this and more in the newest Professor Astro Cat adventure!

Despite covering over 70% of the Earth's surface, the ocean is still roughly 95% unexplored. Join Professor Astro Cat and the gang as they take a deep dive from the sea shore all the way to the darkest depths of the ocean floor to find out more about this mysterious watery world. From coral reefs to deep-sea vents, there's so much to discover on this Deep-sea…


Book cover of Recovering a Lost River: Removing Dams, Rewilding Salmon, Revitalizing Communities

Tim Palmer Author Of America's Great River Journeys: 50 Canoe, Kayak, and Raft Adventures

From my list on rivers and the life they create.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been passionate about and engaged with rivers ever since growing up along streams in the Appalachian foothills of Pennsylvania. Now living in Oregon, I'm the author and photographer of 30 books about rivers, the environment, and adventure travel. My books include a history of river conservation, a primer on modern-day river issues, profiles of great rivers from the Youghiogheny in the East to the Snake and Columbia in the West, guidebooks, and photo essays. I've received the Ansel Adams Photography Award from the Sierra Club, the Communicator of the Year Award from the National Wildlife Federation, the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Rivers, a "paddler of the century" recognition from Paddler magazine, and numerous book honors.

Tim's book list on rivers and the life they create

Tim Palmer Why did Tim love this book?

This compelling profile of the Snake and Columbia Rivers of the Northwest and Northern Rockies makes a motivating case for removing unnecessary dams and restoring some of the most magnificent runs of fish ever to grace the North American continent. Hawley manages to find humor amid the outrage and chaos, and plants in readers' minds the vision for a better future that's within grasp, if only we had the political will to make the necessary changes. 

By Steven Hawley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Recovering a Lost River as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the Pacific Northwest, the Snake River and its wilderness tributaries were—as recently as a half century ago—some of the world’s greatest salmon rivers. Now, due to four federal dams, the salmon population has dropped close to extinction. Steven Hawley, journalist and self-proclaimed “river rat,” argues that the best hope for the Snake River lies in dam removal, a solution that pits the power companies and federal authorities against a collection of Indian tribes, farmers, fishermen, and river recreationists. The river’s health, as he demonstrates, is closely connected to local economies, freshwater rights, and energy independence. Challenging the notion of…


Book cover of The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific

William E. Glassley Author Of A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice

From my list on fieldwork in wild places.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a geologist who studies the origin and evolution of continents, which has required traveling the world to conduct fieldwork. Most of that experience has focused on Greenland and the wilderness fringe that bounds the inland ice cap. For weeks at a time, I and two colleagues, John Korstgård and Kai Sørensen, camp in some of the world’s greatest wilderness landscapes. Over years of such research, I have come to treasure the exquisite emotional power fieldwork in wilderness settings provides. It is the most direct way to begin the journey of understanding the place of humanity in the unfolding progress of cosmic evolution and was the impetus for my recent book.

William's book list on fieldwork in wild places

William E. Glassley Why did William love this book?

The relationship between ourselves and the sea is commonly constrained by beaches and tides. But Julia Whitty, deep-sea diver, and filmmaker opens the mind to the richness of deep waters through the scientific and soulful journeys she poetically shares in this book. Her time spent working in the South Pacific allows an expansion of our own experiences of the wild world. The delicate relationships of life’s many forms, from whales and sharks to rays and coral, contained within Earth’s liquid artistry, offers an opportunity to enrich our understanding of connections we seldom perceive but which, once acknowledged, expand the perception of life’s wealth.

By Julia Whitty,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Fragile Edge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Fragile Edge, the documentary filmmaker and deep-sea diver Julia Whitty paints a mesmerizing, scientifically rich portrait of teeming coral reefs and sea life in the South Pacific. She takes us literally beneath the surface of the usual travel narrative, in an underwater equivalent of an African big-game safari. Hammerhead sharks rule a cascading chain of extraordinary creatures, from eagle rays to reef sharks, as the sound of courting humpback whales reverberates through the deep.
Inspiring for both armchair and expert divers, The Fragile Edge reveals how science can extend our understanding of unfathomable waters, opening our eyes to…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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