SOLVED. Kids scientific ocean search style book–Read around 2003-2009, had scientific illustrations and a list of species to find within that illustration. Each page was a different ocean biome.

[Lily]

I read this book around 2003-2009, it was a kids I-Spy book with detailed scientific drawings of different oceanic regions/eras. It was large and tall but not super thick, and the binding may have been on the top of it so it was shaped like a big sketch paper pad, though I might be remembering that wrong. There was a prehistoric-era page, a kelp forest page, a deep-sea page, a shipwreck page, and a mangrove thicket from what I can remember but there were also others. I'm pretty sure the format was the picture with a list of species you were supposed to find underneath, like "find 5 ammonites" for example. I recently remembered this book and realized that it probably contributed to me majoring in wildlife biology, it was a really great intro to different ocean biomes. It's probably hiding somewhere in my parent's attic but they don't remember it very well and I'm really hoping they didn't give it away at some point! Thank you for any help with this!

[Lily]

So after searching for this book for a week I found it in under half an hour after posting here-- it was The Great Undersea Search by Kate Needham.