Koslow, Tony 1947- (Julian Anthony Koslow)

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Koslow, Tony 1947- (Julian Anthony Koslow)

PERSONAL:

Born 1947. Education: Harvard University, B.A.; University of Washington, B.S., 1973; University of California at San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Ph.D., 1980. Hobbies and other interests: Surfing, biking, tennis, jazz, art films, reading.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, CSIRO Enquiries, Bag 10, Clayton South, Victoria 3169, Australia. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Oceanographer, researcher, administrator, and author. Dalhousie University, Oceanography Department, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, former fisheries oceanographer; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Marine and Atmospheric Research, Perth, Australia, senior principal research scientist, 1989—. University of California at San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations Program, director.

WRITINGS:

The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Tony Koslow is an oceanographer, deep-sea researcher, and writer based near Perth, Australia. He is a senior scientist at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Marine and Atmospheric Research, where he is deeply involved in CSIRO's orange roughy and deepwater ecology project. Koslow and his associates "successfully developed acoustic and egg survey methods to assess orange roughy and other deepwater fish populations," noted a biographer on the CenSeam Web site. Koslow and his team also conducted a detailed survey on the impact of orange roughy trawling on the benthic sea-floor communities around Tasmania, which resulted in the establishment of one of Australia's first deepwater marine reserves to protect the Tasmanian seamounts.

Koslow is a dedicated conservationist, especially of the often misunderstood regions in the world's deepest oceans. In The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea, he "provides his readers with a full account of the deep ocean, includ- ing the history of exploration, the chemical and physical forces that generate life, and the ecology of sea-mounts and the species-rich (possibly the richest) ecosystems that are the abyssal and bathyal plains," commented Craig Macauley in Ecos. Once thought to be a vast, lightless region devoid of life, the deep oceans have been proven to contain thriving living communities of sometimes unusual creatures. The author provides an account of the history and development of deep-sea exploration, from tentative expeditions in the late nineteenth century to extensive modern-day surveys aided by high technology and advanced seagoing equipment. Koslow considers important questions about the deep sea and provides explanations of how such a varied palette of life can exist and thrive in an environment that, at the outset, seems to be cold, dark, and hostile to life. He looks at the physical and geological processes common to the deep sea, such as tectonic movement and hydrothermal vents, and how they contribute to the sustaining life there.

Koslow is particularly concerned with the effects of human activity on the ocean, and how potentially damaging effects of this human "footprint" can be reduced or eliminated. He notes the once-common practice of dumping sewage, poisons, and other pollutants into the deep sea, and reports on how this practice is affecting the deep oceans and the creatures that live there. He concludes his book with proposals and suggestions for conserving and protecting the expansive world beneath the sea. A Publishers Weekly reviewer asserted: "Informative, gorgeous, and extremely well-written, this title may be the only marine life reference you'll ever need."