Humans have glimpsed only a tiny fraction of the abundant varieties of life in the deepest parts of our oceans. Yet massive nets dragged by bottom trawlers are tearing these worlds apart before we can discover their secrets.
The deep sea has been compared to outer space. In fact, we know more about the moon and Mars than we do about the worlds that exist a few miles beneath the ocean's surface. Under crushing pressure and in utter darkness lie vast mountain ranges covered with aquatic Edens, corals as old as the pyramids and hundreds of mysterious creatures.