Saltwater: A Natural History of the Sea

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 of writing and a lifetime of love for the marine environment. Here you’ll find photos, further thoughts, and a chapter-by-chapter reference list.

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, I was assailed by wonders of every kind imaginable to a small child.

Chapter 1: Constellations of the Deep

Going 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

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.

[Links under construction]

Reference List

Most of the primary literature references included in Saltwater are presented below, organised first by chapter, and then by topic.

Prologue

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Chapter 1: Constellations of the Deep

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Adaptations

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Jannasch, H.W., Kjell Eimhjellen, Wirsen, C.O. and A. Farmanfarmaian (1971). Microbial Degradation of Organic Matter in the Deep Sea. Science, 171(3972), pp.672–675. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.171.3972.672.

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Leitner, A.B., Durden, J.M., Smith, C.R., Klingberg, E.D. and Drazen, J.C. (2020). Synaphobranchid eel swarms on abyssal seamounts: Largest aggregation of fishes ever observed at abyssal depths. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, [online] p.103423. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2020.103423.

Martin, R.P. and Smith, W.L. (2024). First evidence of sexual dimorphism in olfactory organs of deep-sea lanternfishes (Myctophidae). PeerJ, [online] 12, pp.e17075–e17075. doi:https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17075.

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Wilson, A.D.M., Szekeres, P., Violich, M., Gutowsky, L.F.G., Eliason, E.J. and Cooke, S.J. (2017). Activity syndromes and metabolism in giant deep-sea isopods. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 121, pp.237–244. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2017.02.003.

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Bioluminescence

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Hanley, K.A. and Widder, E.A. (2017). Bioluminescence in Dinoflagellates: Evidence that the Adaptive Value of Bioluminescence in Dinoflagellates is Concentration Dependent. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 93(2), pp.519–530. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/php.12713.

Hellinger, J., Jägers, P., Donner, M., Sutt, F., Mark, M.D., Senen, B., Tollrian, R. and Herlitze, S. (2017). The Flashlight Fish Anomalops katoptron Uses Bioluminescent Light to Detect Prey in the Dark. PLOS ONE, 12(2), p.e0170489. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170489.

Hendry, T.A. and Dunlap, P.V. (2011). The uncultured luminous symbiont of Anomalops katoptron (Beryciformes: Anomalopidae) represents a new bacterial genus. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 61(3), pp.834–843. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2011.08.006.

Jägers, P., Wagner, L., Schütz, R., Mucke, M., Senen, B., Limmon, G.V., Herlitze, S. and Hellinger, J. (2021). Social signaling via bioluminescent blinks determines nearest neighbor distance in schools of flashlight fish Anomalops katoptron. Scientific Reports, 11(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85770-w.

Miller, S.D., Haddock, S.H.D., Straka, W.C., Seaman, C.J., Combs, C.L., Wang, M., Shi, W. and Nam, S. (2021). Honing in on bioluminescent milky seas from space. Scientific Reports, [online] 11(1), p.15443. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94823-z.

Musilova, Z., Cortesi, F., Matschiner, M., Davies, W.I.L., Patel, J.S., Stieb, S.M., de Busserolles, F., Malmstrøm, M., Tørresen, O.K., Brown, C.J., Mountford, J.K., Hanel, R., Stenkamp, D.L., Jakobsen, K.S., Carleton, K.L., Jentoft, S., Marshall, J. and Salzburger, W. (2019). Vision using multiple distinct rod opsins in deep-sea fishes. Science, [online] 364(6440), pp.588–592. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav4632.

Sato, N., Tsuda, S.-I., Nur E. Alam, Md., Sasanami, T., Iwata, Y., Kusama, S., Inamura, O., Yoshida, M. and Hirohashi, N. (2020). Rare polyandry and common monogamy in the firefly squid, Watasenia scintillans. Scientific Reports, 10(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68006-1.

Schramm, S. and Dieter Weiß (2024). BioluminescenceThe Vibrant Glow of Nature and its Chemical Mechanisms. ChemBioChem, 25(9). doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202400106.

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Hagfish

Böni, L., Fischer, P., Böcker, L., Kuster, S. and Rühs, P.A. (2016). Hagfish slime and mucin flow properties and their implications for defense. Scientific Reports, 6(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30371.

Clark, A.J. and Summers, A.P. (2007). Morphology and kinematics of feeding in hagfish: possible functional advantages of jaws. Journal of Experimental Biology, 210(22), pp.3897–3909. doi:https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.006940.

Taylor, L., Chaudhary, G., Jain, G., Lowe, A.B., Hupe, A., Negishi, A., Zeng, Y., Ewoldt, R.H. and Fudge, D.S. (2023). Mechanisms of gill-clogging by hagfish slime. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 20(200). doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0774.

Zintzen, V., Roberts, C.D., Anderson, M.J., Stewart, A.L., Struthers, C.D. and Harvey, E.S. (2011). Hagfish predatory behaviour and slime defence mechanism. Scientific Reports, 1(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00131.

Origins of Life

Herschy, B., Whicher, A., Camprubi, E., Watson, C., Dartnell, L., Ward, J., Evans, J.R.G. and Lane, N. (2014). An Origin-of-Life Reactor to Simulate Alkaline Hydrothermal Vents. Journal of Molecular Evolution, [online] 79(5-6), pp.213–227. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-014-9658-4.

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Whale Falls

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Li, Q., Liu, Y., Li, G., Wang, Z., Zheng, Z., Sun, Y., Lei, N., Li, Q. and Zhang, W. (2022). Review of the Impact of Whale Fall on Biodiversity in Deep-Sea Ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.885572.

Pearson, H.C., Savoca, M.S., Costa, D.P., Lomas, M.W., Molina, R., Pershing, A.J., Smith, C.R., Villaseñor-Derbez, J.C., Wing, S.R. and Roman, J. (2022). Whales in the carbon cycle: can recovery remove carbon dioxide? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, [online] 38(3). doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.012.

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Research Animal adventures About me

About Me

I’ve been fascinated with animals and their behaviour since I was a child, fossicking in streams, under logs or peering into rockpools. Eventually, I turned it into a career as a biologist and, most recently, as an author.

Using a scientific framework to answer the questions of how and why animals do what they do excites me as much as ever, even now, twenty years since starting my PhD