Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- World map -- Abalone -- Achiteuthis dux -- Beluga -- Chinstrap penguin -- Dolphinfish -- Electric ray -- Flaying fish -- Frigatebird -- Grampus -- Green turtle -- Guanay cormorant -- Halibut -- Horse -- Isurus oxyrinchus -- Juan Fernandez crawfish -- Killer whale -- Louisiana shrimp -- Mother Carey's chicken -- New Zealand sea lion -- Noddy -- Octopus -- Otter -- Paper nautilus -- Parrot -- Pilot fish -- Quahog -- Right whale -- Sea cow -- Sea pickle -- Silver king -- Teredo shipworm -- Tropicbird -- Tuna -- Urchin -- Velella and the man-of-war -- Walrus -- Wandering albatross -- Whale shark -- Xiphias gladius -- Yellow-bellied sea snake -- Zooplankton.

"Ocean Bestiary tells the history of our relationship with the sea, one animal at a time, from A to Z. From the earliest Polynesian navigators to the pilots of deep-sea submersibles today, humans have been exploring the globe's most dominant and inaccessible ecosystem and bringing home to those ashore breathtaking accounts of what they observed. Jumping off from the stories of whalemen, pirates, explorers, immigrants, naturalists, writers, painters, and cruiser-sailors--some famous, some entirely unknown and unpublished--this little book examines and shares what it was they saw. Ocean Bestiary crosses a range of geographies and oceanic environments, from shallows to depths and including coral reefs, upwelling zones, and more. It covers an equally wide range of organisms as well, from tiny zooplankton to immense whales. In playful prose, Richard J. King unfurls his stories and their relevance today for our understanding of environmental history, the history of marine biology, and our shifting perceptions of the ocean"--