Beneath Cold Seas: The Underwater Wilderness of the Pacific Northwest

Start with the frontispiece photograph of a Blue Rockfish gazing at a mango orange peony of a Lion's Mane Jelly--no, start with that same jellyfish on the cover of Beneath Cold Seas, a bright UFO gliding below the gray surface of a Pacific Northwest sea--and you can tell you're in for a stunning photography book. Using state-of-the-art equipment, innovative techniques and electronic strobes, David Hall shows us an underwater world surprising to those who think color and diversity belong to the tropics.

Purple and tangerine sea stars prey on mussels amid dark aqua sea urchins; a Mosshead Warbonnet peeks out from a kelp bed; a semi-camouflaged Red Irish Lord nestles over a Sulfur sponge; a harbor seal scratches its back underwater; an adult wolf eel looks like a cranky gray monster; migrating sockeye are seen at dusk against a sunset sky; pale Plumose anemones are as graceful as a ballet; opalescent nudibranchs resemble fireworks.

David Hall has created a dazzling book filled with dazzling sea creatures, showing us an astonishing marine domain. --Marilyn Dahl, book review editor, Shelf Awareness