My latest book, Saltwater: A Natural History of the Sea, is to be released on November 12, 2026. It’s the culmination of three years’ writing and a lifetime of love for the marine environment. Here you’ll find photos (taken by me, unless stated, thus revealing a fundamental lack of aptitude with a camera), click on them for a larger view/slideshow. A full, chapter-by-chapter, reference list for Saltwater can be found here.
Prologue
Flamborough, on the east coast of England, was where my relationship with the sea was born. Scampering around the beaches and rocks of its many coves as a child, I was bewitched by wonders of every kind.
Images of Flamborough Head, where I spent my summer holidays and the place that gave me my love of the sea
Chapter 1: Constellations of the Deep
Descending to the deep sea, aboard the submarine Idabel, guided by Karl Stanley, who both built the vessel and piloted it, represented the culmination of a long held dream
Top row, l-r: Karl Stanley with his creation, Idabel; the view from the sub as we left the surface; deep sea echinoderms. Bottom row, l-r: a deep sea reef at 2000 feet, complete with roughies; a tripod fish, waiting; a cavorting humpback which isn’t in the deep sea, but which may eventually provide an important resource for deep sea organisms; a prowling 5m six-gill shark at 1000 feet.
Chapter 2: Hinterlands
The boundary between the fresh waters of the land and the sea beyond is an evolutionary proving ground; it has long been an opportunity for life as well as a barrier.
Top row, l-r: a grizzly bear in Alaska, fortunately intent on salmon, rather than me; the Great Eau in Lincolnshire, immediately upstream of a sea lock; a shoal of juvenile roach in the same stretch of water. Bottom row, l-r: Stickleback, also natives to the Great Eau are much better at coping with salt than the roach with whom they share the river; a salmon jumping at Banchory in Aberdeenshire (admittedly, you have to look closely…); a peaceful life for juvenile fish in the Great Eau; a newborn grey seal pup, umbilicus still showing
Chapter 3: A Kaleidoscope of Shells
The seashore is the place where many of us first experience the ocean. It’s the place where budding biologists and seasoned scientists alike meet multitudes of marine life.
Top row, l-r: Rockpools are refuges at low tide, and here a huge density of creatures – mostly whelks, topshells and anemones – are crammed together in the rockpool, which the surrounds are more sparsely populated; a small army of soldier crabs on manoeuvres over the mud of K’gari, and (below) a captive for scale. Bottom row, l-r: a sea star, cruising in search of a meal; the Queen Rock in Silex Bay Flamborough; despite their (ahem) prodigious appendicular talents, barnacles still have to huddle together on the high shore.
Chapter 4: Where Shadows Drift
Temperate seas are strongly seasonal, their underwater rhythms echoing those above the waves. Within their waters, a rich patchwork of habitats play host to a dazzling assemblage of organisms.
Top row, l-r: Kelp emerge into the light at extreme low tide in New Zealand; a silver gull takes to the air in hope of finding a morsel; Balmoral Bay in Sydney Harbour; a view of Balmoral Bay from beneath the surface; a shoal of hardyheads driven inshore by predators; a gaggle of yellowfin bream browsing on algae-covered rocks.
Chapter 5: The Cold Heart of the Sea
The frozen seas at the Earth’s poles are some of the most biologically productive habitats on Earth, and despite the harshness of the conditions, they’re home to a staggering amount of biodiversity.
Top row, l-r: A bachelor group of bull walruses spend a lazy afternoon resting (and farting) between clam dives in Svalbard; one of the most accomplished and fearsome predators in the world, a leopard seal; a mother polar bear and cubs scenting the air in Svalbard. Bottom row, l-r: a spectacular glacier in Alaska; ethereal and brightly coloured sea stars in Antarctica (sea star picture provided by Santi Diaz).
Chapter 6: The Jewel Sea
Coral reefs are miracles of biology, living structures of mind-boggling size that are home to a breathtaking variety of species.
Top row, l-r: a colony of humbug damselfish at their home coral on the Great Barrier Reef; a noddy tern clearing its throat preparatory for a spot of fishing at One Tree Island, GBR; a white-tip reef shark patrolling Shark Alley at OTI. Bottom row, l-r; a shoal of convict tangs up to mischief in Fiji; an anemonefish regarding me with suspicion from the safety of its home; a porcupine fish in Tonga; an exquisitely coloured old glory goby takes a time out on a piece of coral.
Chapter 7: Amid the Flashing and Feathery Foam
The open ocean is, for many of us, a mystery; a place rarely visited and unfamiliar. Its seemingly infinite space plays host to some magnificent animals.
Top row, l-r: a sperm whale mother and juvenile prepare to dive in the Azores; a sunfish silhouetted against the sun. Middle row, l-r: marine iguanas are akin to an evolutionary miracle having developed from fruit-eating forebears and adapting to a diet of algae in the cold waters of the Galapagos; a mobula in flight in the Galapagos; a male humpback off Tonga. Bottom row, l-r: a green turtle in Fiji – as juveniles, most turtles roam across huge distances in the ocean; a pair of sharks resting in the Galapagos.
Epilogue
As I describe throughout Saltwater, our stewardship of the oceans has been, in many cases, disastrous. Despite this, there remain good reasons for hope and for action, not least because of the sea’s resilience.
Top row, l-r: the dreadful sight of a turtle, floating listlessly, its shell terribly distended as a result of ingesting plastic, being cared for at the wonderful Mahamodara Turtle Rescue Centre in Sri Lanka; litter on the sea shore; scoliodon sharks for sale at Mumbai fish market; dead water at Mumbai fish market. Bottom row, l-r: the author on the cusp of a huge fish shoal in the Galapagos, showing the boundless biological wealth possible in the sea; the same shoal making way for a column of bubbles; the author with a soon-to-be released day-old hatchling at the matchlessly brilliant Mahamodara Centre.
ASHLEY WARD 