The remarkable story of the Southern Ocean (AKA the Antarctic or Austral Ocean), from its birth in deep geological time to the present day. Flowing completely around the Earth and unimpeded by any landmass, the Southern Ocean reaches from the seasonally-shifting ice continent of Antarctica to the southern coastlines and islands of Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa. In Wild Sea Joy McCann interweaves the fascinating environmental and cultural histories of the Southern Ocean, drawing from a vast archive of charts and maps, sea captains' journals, whalers' log books, missionary correspondence, voyagers' letters, scientific reports, stories and myths. In a hybrid space where science, technology, culture, imagination and myth converge, Wild Sea explores this little-known ocean and its emerging importance as a barometer of planetary climate change.