Richard Ellis`s research has taken him all over the world from Nantucket to Patagonia, from Newfoundland to the South Pole. Now, with more than 450 of his own illustrations to accompany the text, he takes us from A to Z (abalone to zooxanthellae), from the melon-headed whale to the wahoo (perhaps the fastest fish in the sea), from the crown-of-thorns starfish to the velvet belly shark, from Venice to Ni`ihau (Hawaii`s forbidden isle ), from the amazing diversity of the oceans` creatures and the birds that inhabit the skies above them to the little-known realm of marine geography, to tales of seafarers and the tools of navigation. Everything that is known about the sea and its exploration is here, in one unprecedented volume.