I think the central appeal of this article lies in the science behind these fish, but I personally find most fascinating the exploratory aspect of the entire th

I think the central appeal of this article lies in the science behind these fish, but I personally find most fascinating the exploratory aspect of the entire thing. I know man's next horizon is the stars and all that jazz, but we've still only explored ~5% of the ocean [^1] and it doesn't feel like we're making any substantial effort to increase that percentage. I was not born with any particular zeal for marine biology -- to be honest, a lot of fish just kinda freak me out, even more so after that picture of a flatfish larva -- but the notion of this entire ecosystem literally right beneath us is fascinating. I think I'm going to try and stop thinking of it as "hey, let's discover X more species of fish and map Y more geological patterns" and more thinking of it as the general sense of wonder: that after so many years and so many accomplishments, there are still some things that we haven't quite figured out yet -- there are still quite a few surprises in places that we thought we'd figured out completely. (The idealist's version of completing your map in Civilization, to use a strained metaphor.) Does anyone have any good literature about this subject to recommend? [^1]: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html