LegaSea Library
Welcome to LegaSea Library, we hope you stay a while.
Each of these books have had a meaningful impact on how I have come to appreciate the ocean and learn more about all of the amazing opportunities and creatures it has to offer.
We hope this list creates a good diving off point for our viewers to add more marine focused literature to their repertoire!
Enjoy!
-Helena, Founder of LegaSea Ecology
The Soul of an Octopus: A Suprising Exploration Into the World of Consciousness by Sky Montgomery
Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think?
Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves
Deep is a voyage from the ocean's surface to its darkest trenches, the most mysterious places on Earth. Fascinated by the sport of freediving - in which competitors descend to great depths on a single breath - James Nestor embeds with a gang of oceangoing extreme athletes and renegade researchers. He finds whales that communicate with other whales hundreds of miles away, sharks that swim in unerringly straight lines through pitch-black waters, and other strange phenomena. Most illuminating of all, he learns that these abilities are reflected in our own remarkable and often hidden potential - including echolocation, directional sense, and the profound bodily changes humans undergo when underwater. Along the way Nestor unlocks his own freediving skills as he communes with the pioneers who are expanding our definition of what is possible in the natural world - and in ourselves.
The Soul of an Octopus: A Suprising Exploration Into the World of Consciousness by Sky Montgomery
Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think?
Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves
Deep is a voyage from the ocean's surface to its darkest trenches, the most mysterious places on Earth. Fascinated by the sport of freediving - in which competitors descend to great depths on a single breath - James Nestor embeds with a gang of oceangoing extreme athletes and renegade researchers. He finds whales that communicate with other whales hundreds of miles away, sharks that swim in unerringly straight lines through pitch-black waters, and other strange phenomena. Most illuminating of all, he learns that these abilities are reflected in our own remarkable and often hidden potential - including echolocation, directional sense, and the profound bodily changes humans undergo when underwater. Along the way Nestor unlocks his own freediving skills as he communes with the pioneers who are expanding our definition of what is possible in the natural world - and in ourselves.
Into the Planet: My Life As a Cave Diver by Jill Heinerth
Jill Heinerth—the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg and leader of a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations—has descended farther into the inner depths of our planet than any other woman. She takes us into the harrowing split-second decisions that determine whether a diver makes it back to safety, the prejudices that prevent women from pursuing careers underwater, and her endeavor to recover a fallen friend’s body from the confines of a cave. But there’s beauty beyond the danger of diving, and while Heinerth swims beneath our feet in the lifeblood of our planet, she works with biologists discovering new species, physicists tracking climate change, and hydrogeologists examining our finite freshwater reserves.
Eat Like A Fish: My Adventures As a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer by Bren Smith
Here Bren Smith—a restorative ocean farmer—introduces the world of sea-based agriculture, a groundbreaking solution to the global climate crisis. The ocean is a vast, untapped opportunity, home to thousands of edible plants. Using simple DIY techniques, we can grow more than enough delicious and nutritious food—without the use of fresh water or fertilizers—to feed the planet and mitigate climate change, to boot.
Emperors of the Deep: Sharks - The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians by William McKeever
In this remarkable groundbreaking book, a documentarian and conservationist, determined to dispel misplaced fear and correct common misconceptions, explores in-depth the secret lives of sharks—magnificent creatures who play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans and ultimately the planet.
