A deep sea tale to tell

Kira's Undersea Garden

The seamounts in the Mariana Arc are in relatively shallow water. But most other hot vent sites in the world lie much deeper—at 2,000 metres or more—and it can take hours for a submersible to make the descent.

What's a biologist to do while waiting? Well, you could write a children's book about deep sea hot vents. Kira's Undersea Garden, written by UVic's Verena Tunnicliffe, is the story of Kira the spider crab and what she does when a scientist leaves instruments in her deep sea hot vent garden.

The book vividly captures Tunnicliffe's passion for deep sea life. "The thing I find most fun about the work I do is looking carefully at the animals and trying to understand how they fit into their world," she says. "This book is my way of sharing that."

The idea for the book evolved on a research cruise. Tunnicliffe noticed how something would happen on deck and two hours later an image of the incident—a cartoon—would appear. The artist was the ship's bosun, Bruce Cowden, who told Tunnicliffe his dream was to illustrate a children's book.

"We had two weeks left in the cruise so I mocked up the story and Bruce disappeared into his cabin and produced most of the sketches."

Back on land, Tunnicliffe "found out what was really involved in publishing a kid's book" and shelved the project. Later, during an illness, she was looking "for some sort of therapy" and coloured in all of Cowden's black and white sketches.

The book was published through a self-publishing press last Christmas. It's available for $10.50 at the UVic bookstore or from Tunnicliffe at
721-7135 or verenat@uvic.ca.