AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



Today there is a remarkable interest in the living things of the sea, partly 

 due to a real desire for increased general knowledge especially about things 

 not too commonplace. Science leaps forward during wars, many new 

 tools and techniques are discovered and developed, and after this hectic 

 stimulation there follows a period during which men set out idealistically 

 to search for truth and self knowledge. That the sea and the life in it has 

 received its share of this interest is thus also in part due to the frogman's 

 equipment and the underwater camera, which provide an opportunity to see 

 so much more of these creatures in their natural homes. Not only have those 

 benefited who themselves venture into this field, but through films and 

 television a greater number can now experience this very real thrill for 

 themselves. Such an interest is both receptive and questioning, and centres 

 largely on the desire to know more of the 'how' and the 'why' of the 

 myriad living creatures, how they live and depend on each other, and how 

 their existence has its effect on us. The drifting plankton, as the basis of life 

 in the sea, including of course the fish, certainly has a greater effect on us than 

 a casual thought would suggest. 



These are the kind of things this book is intended to convey. It is not a 

 handbook to help identify the organisms of the plankton. That would indeed 

 be a colossal effort, like producing a single volume to cover all the flowers, 

 grasses, mosses and moulds, all the insects, spiders, worms, slugs and snails 

 and goodness knows what else besides. Such information is available in 

 thousands of scattered tomes and papers in all sorts of scientific journals and 

 in dozens of languages. If this book stimulates anyone to collect plankton 

 for himself, whether as a passing dip into a strange living cosmos or as a real 

 pastime, or helps to show him the advantages of marine biology as a career 

 starting with a university course, then it will have served an additional and 

 very worth-while function. In Chapter 2, you will find some hints on how to 

 start, and Chapters 3 to 7 should give you an idea of the type of creature 

 being looked at. But this is not the book's main function, which is to open 

 a window on to a vista that few can explore for themselves, if they wish to 

 uncover more than the merest fringe, as it needs a sea-worthy ship, ex- 

 pensive gear and a large specialist library. Many of us find exploration so 

 much more comfortable from a favourite armchair than from the deck cf a 

 storm-tossed ship ! Nevertheless the readily accessible fringe offers joys enough 

 if you have a good hand lens — though a microscope, even a very cheap one, 

 would be much better. 



