This lovely, fascinating, gorgeous new edition of The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs, written by Dr. Richard Smith and published by Apollo Publishers, is a must-read.

From the first moment I saw Smith’s exceptional photos (thank you, Instagram!), I was entranced. Too often, we hurry through the world, not taking or having the time to notice big things, let alone small ones. However, when we DO slow down, and actually LOOK, an incredible world is there, right before us.

Denise’s Pygmy Seahorse 

Such is the inspiration from The World Beneath. It’s a fascinating treasure trove shared from a life of interesting work and knowledge, as well as an incredible photographic odyssey. It’s a glimpse into a world most of us know little about, and an eminently readable book about our oceans, science, and the importance of learning, understanding, and caretaking of our natural world.

Educators and parents in the know utilize a practice called strewing (having a wide variety of learning resources and interesting items available strewn in their classrooms and homes). Of the thousands of books in our home, The World Beneath has had the most readership in our family–so many times, I’d leave it near my reading chair, and find it elsewhere, bookmarked up. Now we color code those post-its, and learn from what we each love about the book, and keep it in a central location. Yes. It is THAT good.

Smith’s very personal and knowledgeable writing offers a dual reading experience: getting us close up into the hows and whys of exploring underwater, and sharing  a profoundly important look at the changes in our oceans. 

The World Beneath is a beautifully written underwater thriller, sparking curiosity, excitement, and suspense. What happens with fish mimicry in the Red Sea? How does one find and name a new species? When does a symbiotic relationship change due to death or social ranking (anemonefish, I’m looking at you!)?

HIGHLY recommended!

Dr. Richard Smith, a British award-winning underwater photographer, author and marine conservationist, aspires to promote an appreciation for the ocean’s inhabitants and raise awareness of marine conservation issues through his images. A marine biologist by training, Richard’s pioneering research on the biology and conservation of pygmy seahorses, led to the first PhD on these enigmatic fishes. Richard is a member of the IUCN Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group. He has named the two most recent pygmy seahorse discoveries from Japan, Hippocampus japapigu, and South Africa, H. nalu. Richard organizes and leads marine life expeditions where the aim is for participants to get more from their diving and photography by learning about the marine environment. 

We were lucky enough to catch up with Dr. Smith this fall, and ask him about the book, inspiration, pygmy seahorses, and more. Here's what he had to say...

Please tell us about your new book, The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs...
The World Beneath brings together my great passions: nature, conservation, adventure, scuba diving, underwater photography, and storytelling. Though my work as a marine biologist, I am fortunate enough to explore the world’s shallow seas in search of little-known creatures and it’s their stories that I wanted to tell. The book is full of 300 or so images that I have taken underwater, and which are used to illustrate behaviours and the incredible diversity that can be found on coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. 

Two Bargibant’s Pygmy Seahorses

What led you to create a new edition for this book? 
The first edition was released in 2019 and in the five years since it was released, I felt there were some updates I wanted to make. In that time, I have named two new species: a pygmy seahorse from South Africa that could just stretch across a dime, which is the first of its kind to be found in the whole of the Indian Ocean, and a pygmy pipehorse also from South Africa. There are a couple of other non-seahorse discoveries that I have made that I wanted to include too. Sadly, there also seem to have been some changes to the oceans in our collective absence during the pandemic. In remote corners of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, the ecosystems have clearly changed in the time we were out of the water. It’s easy for these things to go undocumented, so that was another aspect of the new edition.

One of the biggest takeaways I got from reading The World Beneath is the importance of deep study and noticing. There is So Much going on in our oceans and reefs that we may feel we need to explore it ALL. Yet coming back again and again, looking intently, and learning about change in one location can truly be life-changing. Do you have tips for our readers on how to notice, learn about, and document our natural world?
Actually, I find this to be one of the most rewarding parts of what I do. I love taking time in nature, whether underwater or above, to observe and notice the minutia of animals’ lives. Some can be moment to moment, or changes through the seasons or from one year to the next. Spending hundreds of hours recording the lives of one group of pygmy seahorses on the reefs of Indonesia for my PhD research allowed me time to befriend some other local residents too. One day I noticed that a group of dragonet fish would mate at the same time each day right next to where I hovered to watch the pygmies. By visiting the same site over several years, I noticed how slowly the corals and other organisms grow. They might look like short-lived flowers, but in reality, some of them are probably older than I am! 

In terms of reader’s own contributions, I think it’s just important to allow yourself time in nature wherever it’s accessible to you. My book acts as a natural history guide for those lucky enough to visit some of the places I have, for others it offers a window to another world and hopefully acts as inspiration for the amazing life we have on our planet. I think one of the best resources to both learn about, and document, nature wherever you are is iNaturalist. There is a section of this software for seahorses, that evolved from an initiative named iSeahorse. This data has been so valuable to us seahorse researchers. There have been records of undescribed species and 15% of sighting are outside of the previously recorded geographic range for the species!

Undescribed amphipod guarding a Polycapra Tunicate. Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia

How can families and educators utilize this book (and other resources) in discussions about our oceans, the animals and reefs within, and how we can continue to explore, learn, and protect them?
I have really enjoyed how much children have enjoyed the book. Younger kids are obviously drawn to the photographs, but older children can certainly read the text too. This is definitely a book I would have wanted to read as a little nature nut! Through the book, I wanted to inspire people to learn more about the organism that make coral reefs their homes and through that knowledge want to protect them. I think it can be hard to relate to what a coral reef is if you haven’t had the opportunity to visit one yourself. I wanted to open up discussion among people who haven’t had that opportunity, and for them to realise what a huge loss it would be to humanity if they vanished. As an ecosystem, coral reefs are the canary in the coalmine, but we want that canary to keep singing!

I hadn't known of pygmy seahorses, and now I'm utterly enthralled. How did you even SEE one, the first time? What might people be surprised to learn about them?
I had always been fascinated by little creatures on the reef, especially those which are specific about where they live. I started out as a diver at 16 with a fascination of sea slugs. I became skilled at finding these little treasures, which are far more beautiful than you might initially imagine. I then started taking my first underwater images to try and identify some of the species I was finding. With a developing eye for the little critters, I began seeing and evolving questions about the biology of pygmy seahorses that I was finding. Having a search image in your mind and knowing their favoured habitats are key to locating these little treasures.

For those who haven’t heard of them, they are just as they sound: a tiny seahorse. My PhD research ultimately became the first of its kind on these diminutive fishes. In fact, they are so poorly known that only one species had been named until after the turn of the millennium and I have named the two latest from Japan and South Africa. They look just like regular seahorses, but measure between half and one inch in length when stretched out. An inch long specimen would be a huge pygmy seahorse! Just like other seahorses the males brood the offspring and my research showed some incredible behaviours between individuals such as neck wrestling and trying to strangle each other with their tails!

Denise's pygmy seahorse variation, described in 2003. Wakatobi, Sulawesi, Indonesia

What's up next for you?
I leave for Monaco in a few days where the world’s seahorse experts are gathering as part of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group. There are about 40 of us from around the world, who will spend the week discussing the conservation of these animals, thanks to the incredible generosity of Prince Albert of Monaco who sponsored our getting together. I am the pygmy seahorse lead for the group and am very excited to talk pygmies for a whole week! After that I will head to the Egyptian Red Sea to spending Christmas hunting for an elusive and tiny seahorse known only from that area. It’s only been spotted a few times, and I am very keen to make my own observations.

Walea Soft Coral Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus waleananus)

How can people find your work? 
My website OceanRealmImages.com is a good place to start, but my social media is often more up to date:

Instagram – @Dr.RichardSmith  

Facebook – @OceanRealmImages

All photos courtesy and copyright Dr. Richard Smith, published with permission