Drew Harvell

**A TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2025 SO FAR * A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK TO READ THIS SUMMER ** A transporting, mind-expanding exploration of the deep sea and the strange, astonishing and ancient creatures who inhabit it – revealing their hidden worlds and all we can learn from it. 'An undersea safari ... enchanting' THE TIMES '[Harvell] writes vividly and with tangible delight' SPECTATOR Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms the size of cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest, strangest and most diverse organisms on Earth. From Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from the Caribbean to Indonesia, leading marine ecologist Dr Drew Harvell dives deep into the ocean to uncover these incredible spineless creatures and their extraordinary superpowers. We meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars who garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in perfect balance. Our oceans teem with life, vitality and wonder, but they are in jeopardy. As global warming threatens to ravage our planet and change all our lives, the innovations of these wondrous creatures hold ever more important secrets for saving our seas - and our own survival. The Ocean’s Menagerie is at once a miraculous tale of biological marvels and an urgent call to arms to protect our planet's most important ecosystem. 'Revelatory' WILLIAM GIBSON 'Each page is full of wonder and surprise' STEVE BRUSATTE 'Magic' TOM MUSTILL

**A THE TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2025 SO FAR**A transporting exploration of the deep sea, and how our planet’s strangest, most ancient and astonishing creatures have urgent relevance to cutting-edge science today.'Revelatory' WILLIAM GIBSON'Each page is full of wonder and surprise' STEVE BRUSATTE'Magic' TOM MUSTILLHundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms the size and shape of cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest and most diverse organisms on Earth, seeming to bend the rules of land-based biology. Although sometimes unseen in the deep, these incredible spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defence.Marine ecologist Dr Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from the Caribbean to Indonesia, to uncover the incredible underwater ‘superpowers’ of spineless creatures: we meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars who garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in perfect balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering and energy innovations of these wondrous creatures hold ever more important secrets to our own survival.The Ocean’s Menagerie is a tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman’s passionate connection to an adventurous career in science and a call to arms to protect the world’s most ancient ecosystems.'An enchanting book' THE TIMES'A warm and wondrous book' CARL SAFINA'Unforgettable' NICK PYENSON

An elegantly written exploration of the cutting edge science of the strangest and most remarkable creatures on our planet by a leading marine biologist Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms that rival human cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest and most diverse organisms on earth, seeming to bend the "rules" of land-based biology. Although sometimes unseen in the deep, the spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defense. In The Ocean's Menagerie, world-renowned marine ecologist Dr. Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from St. Croix to Indonesia, to uncover the incredible underwater "superpowers" of spineless creatures: we meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars that garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering, and energy innovations of these wonderous creatures inspire ever more important solutions to our own survival. The Ocean's Menagerie is a tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman's passionate connection to an adventurous career in science, and a call to arms to protect the world's most ancient ecosystems.

Winner of the Sustainability Science Award 2020, Ecological Society of America Winner of the PROSE Award (Biological Sciences category) 2020, Association of American PublishersThere is a growing crisis in our oceans: mysterious outbreaks of infectious disease are on the rise. Marine epidemics can cause mass die-offs of wildlife from the bottom to the top of food chains, impacting the health of ocean ecosystems as well as lives on land. Portending global environmental disaster, ocean outbreaks are fueled by warming seas, sewage dumping, unregulated aquaculture, and drifting plastic.Ocean Outbreak follows renowned scientist Drew Harvell and her colleagues into the field as they investigate how four iconic marine animals—corals, abalone, salmon, and starfish—have been devastated by disease. Based on over twenty years of research, this firsthand account of the sometimes gradual, sometimes exploding impact of disease on our ocean’s biodiversity ends with solutions and a call to action. Only through policy changes and the implementation of innovative solutions from nature can we reduce major outbreaks, save some ocean ecosystems, and protect our fragile environment.

Winner of the Sustainability Science Award 2020, Ecological Society of America Winner of the PROSE Award (Biological Sciences category) 2020, Association of American PublishersThere is a growing crisis in our oceans: mysterious outbreaks of infectious disease are on the rise. Marine epidemics can cause mass die-offs of wildlife from the bottom to the top of food chains, impacting the health of ocean ecosystems as well as lives on land. Portending global environmental disaster, ocean outbreaks are fueled by warming seas, sewage dumping, unregulated aquaculture, and drifting plastic.Ocean Outbreak follows renowned scientist Drew Harvell and her colleagues into the field as they investigate how four iconic marine animals—corals, abalone, salmon, and starfish—have been devastated by disease. Based on over twenty years of research, this firsthand account of the sometimes gradual, sometimes exploding impact of disease on our ocean’s biodiversity ends with solutions and a call to action. Only through policy changes and the implementation of innovative solutions from nature can we reduce major outbreaks, save some ocean ecosystems, and protect our fragile environment.

"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation."—Library Journal"Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas."—The Guardian Winner of the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award, Environment Category It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell’s eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their likenesses into glass, documenting the life of oceans untouched by climate change and human impacts. Inspired by the Blaschkas’ uncanny replicas, Harvell set out in search of their living counterparts. In A Sea of Glass, she recounts this journey of a lifetime, taking readers along as she dives beneath the ocean's surface to a rarely seen world, revealing the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the living matches for the Blaschkas’ creations are, indeed, as fragile as glass. Drew Harvell and the Blaschka menagerie are the subjects of the documentary Fragile Legacy, which won the Best Short Film award at the 2015 Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Learn more about the film and check out the trailer here.