“A riveting ocean of a book, packed with gripping adventures, high-stakes exploration and political intrigue. Trethewey leads us to the bottom of the sea and deftly shows why it all matters so much.” — Helen Scales, author of The Brilliant Abyss”There is no doubt in my mind that the ocean plays the most massive role in our past, present, and future—from transportation to planet health to long term sustainability. The Deepest Map shines a light on this massive yet ever-changing force and helps bring into focus so many unanswered questions, while giving us a beautiful reminder of how important it is to educate and protect these waters to the best of our abilities.“— Garrett McNamara, Big Wave surfer, co-creator of the documentary series 100 Foot Wave and author of Hound of the Sea”The Deepest Map is a fascinating, poetic love letter to our planet and to the scientists and explorers risking their lives to understand its unconscious. With exhaustive reporting, Trethewey takes us on an awe-inspiring and humbling adventure that makes us realize how much we still have to learn about our home.” — Jaimal Yogis, author of All Our Waves Are Water”Wow, what a great adventure story. Shipwrecks, octopus gardens, coral reefs as tall as the Empire State Building, 11,000 year-old sponges, deep sea robots—it’s a trip to another world, right here on Earth. This is not just a book about the epic quest to map the ocean floor, but an exploration of the mysteries and life of a planet we hardly know. The Deepest Map is one of those rare books that will change the way you see our world.” — Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come”An engrossing look at deep-sea exploration. Essential reading for environmentalists, armchair adventure divers, and those who care about the world’s oceans.” — Kirkus (Starred Review)“Trethewey’s sharp eye for character brings out the humanity in the marine moonshot. It’s worth exploring.” — Publishers Weekly“[The] questions Trethewey encourages us to ponder in The Deepest Map are not centered around whether to map and explore the deep sea, they’re about how that exploration happens, who controls it, and what it leaves behind. The deep sea could become our next Amazon…heavily plundered and degraded. Or it could become our next Antarctica, governed by international treaties that protect it in the name of science. Trethewey’s thorough accounting of our knowledge of and relationship to this ‘last truly mysterious place on Earth’ can only help us along the right path.” — Atlantic Books Review”This adventure on the high seas follows scientific explorers who are charting the seafloor in exquisite detail. But as with any exploration of uncharted territory, mapping the bottom of the ocean risks spoiling a place largely untouched by humans.” — Science News Magazine”A gripping, timely account of the world’s push—by inventors, scientists, business people and government—to map the ocean’s floor.” — The Globe and Mail

Laura Trethewey is an award-winning ocean and environmental journalist and author of The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories of a Changing Sea. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Courrier International, The Guardian, The Walrus, Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Hakai Magazine, and Canadian Geographic. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and won Canada’s Writers’ Trust Rising Star Award in 2020.