Marine Life Books

We saw many turtles in the water during our Panama Canal cruise. It was unexpected. Got the book after we returned home and enjoy the info. Great pictures.

this book has lots of superb images and interesting facts about sea turtles. I thouroughly recommend this book to anybody interested in sea turtles.

This book provides good basic information and wonderful photographs about sea turtles. After a general overview of a turtle's life from hatchling to adult, the author describes in detail the currently eight recognized living species of sea turtles: loggerhead, hawksbill, leatherback, Kemp's ridley, olive ridley, green turtle, black turtle, and Australian flatback. He also shows how fishing, pollution, beach armoring, development, raking and beach driving threaten the reptiles' existence, and how various projects aim at increasing the turtle population.

It's a great source of information for anyone: compact, well researched, and thought-provoking.

This is a wonderfully comprehensive book on the characteristics, life and hazards facing sea turtles. The well written text truly gives the reader a feel for what life is like for a sea turtle.

Facts covered include ancestry, feeding, growth, navigation, migration, mating & nesting. Then there are sections on the 8 major species of sea turtles describing the distinctive features of each.

The photos are terrific, with many great underwater shots of these graceful and powerful swimmers. There are also nesting turtles and adorable hatchlings. A number of conservation efforts are shown as well.

A major focus of the book is the threats facing these endangered species, with numbers diminished by decades of hunting, natural predators and environmental decline. Hopeful efforts are underway to reverse this trend.

This book is amazingly detailed for its size. It's an ideal quick reference with fabulous photographs. If you want to learn about sea turtles with plenty of basic facts (quite a few!) and photos but not an excess of science, this is the one for you. Perfect for the layman's library.

This is a lovely, straight forward book on seashells that can be enjoyed by all ages. The photography is wonderful.

Who doesn't like a day at the beach collecting seashells. Only nature can create such beauty. This book would go great with "Beach Lover's Guide to the Perfect Sandwich" This book contains great sandwiches to eat at the beach and at beach parties. You can use the shells you collect to decorate your table of sandwiches.

Great photography and interesting text that is easy to read. Anyone who loves seashells will love this book. I'm so glad I got it. Well worth the price.

I needed to find a well-illustrated book on Seashells for an overseas friend. I know nothing about seashells, so I was a bit apprehensive how my first purchase with Amazon would turn out.

I need not have worried. The book was delivered within 48 hours and I was able to read it myself, before it went to Thailand with me. I was delighted with the book.

The recipient, a government Marine Biologist was thrilled.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anybody and everybody.

I was recently on vacation at a seacoast resort and every bookstore and gift shop in the area had a small book, almost a mini coffee table book, entitled SEASHELLS. The book contains both photographs and text regarding shells. Customers picked up the book, leafed through the pages and were amazed. The amazement was a reaction to the stunning photography of Jodie Iselin. The shells are arranged in a variety of settings from natural to artful and we see the grandeur and beauty of these objects that we often take for granted. The text is somewhat perfunctory, explaining the type of shell and where it can be found, but it serves more as an aid to the photographs rather than giving specific scientific information about the shells.

It's a perfect gift for anyone who loves shells, and judging from what appeared to be brisk sales, many people purchased it either as a gift for someone else or themselves, but when I purchased it, it was not as a gift. I am an amateur photographer, and I love photographing shells. It's not as easy as it looks. The shells often have rich textures which makes can make them difficult to photograph, or at least difficult to get sharp photos. For me, the book is more inspiration than anything else and while it may be a long time if ever that my photos will be even close to those in the book, it gives me something to work toward and ideas of how to arrange shells, and I'm sure come Christmas, I'll find it will be a gift idea too.

A "must read" for all who care about our Oceans and, especially, those who still have a "Jaws" view of sharks. Hopefully this will be another wake up call for the UN and fishing industry to put a stop the this slaughter. Share this book and video with as many people as you can.

This is a fantastic story and pictoral documentation of a amazing journey. The revelations about sharks and an industry of profound disregard for their well being, are profound. I could not put this book down. A shark, nature, or ecology minded readers must have book!

This book contains beautiful and shocking images about sharks and our oceans. While beautiful, they are at risk. This book details the tragic shark finning and one persons journey to expose just how barbaric it is. Our oceans are a vital part of our ecosystem and need to be respected. This book is something that everyone should see just to get an idea of what are oceans are all about, as well as what threatens the species that inhabit them. Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world; because that is all that ever has!

This book contains some of the most beautiful and stunning photgraphs of some of the oceans most important creatures. It is clear that a lot of hard work and care went into capturing the mystery and allure of sharks while bringing attention to a great cause.

By far the most striking and startling ocean photo book ever made. I really think you should buy it;) The more people we make aware of the plight of the oceans, the more likely we can turn the situation around as we've done for the whales.

I was in the same class as his son Jerry in elementary school. He came in and told us about what happened to him. I have a copy of this book, its a good account of survival and a good read, recommended!!

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE HIT BY A GREAT WHITE AND SURVIVE THEN GET THIS BOOK.YOU WILL NOT PUT THIS DOWN UNTIL THE LAST PAGE IS TURNED.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE HIT BY A GREAT WHITE AND SURVIVE THEN GET THIS BOOK.YOU WILL NOT PUT THIS DOWN UNTIL THE LAST PAGE IS TURNED.

The book "surfing with the great white Shark" by Kenny Doubt is a must reading for all surfers on the Pacific Coast. Kenny Doubt writes a vivid and compelling story of his encounter with the most feared preditor of oceans. He is fortunate to be alive to tell his story.

His love of surfing lead him to be in the right place at the wrong time: Cannon Beach, Oregon on a cold winter day in 1972. The shark, in excess of 15 feet, was also in wrong place at the same time and the two met.

The result was of this meeting near Haystack Rock was a tearing of the flesh, exposed organs, incliding the heart and lungs, and rescue bu surfing friends that ultimately save his life.

The book includes pictures and medical detail that indicated the severity of his injuries including the more than 500 stiches the doctors counted.

The writing is straight forward and comprehensive. It is a complelling short story that can't be put down until completed.

Kenny Doudt tells you what it feels like to be snacked on by a Great White shark. It is incredible to read what he saw, what he heard, how he felt, and what he did during his encounter.

His rescue and ultimate survival of his horrific wounds make for reading you cannot put down. I read this in one sitting. The black-and-white pictures of the wounds inflicted will take your breath away. That Kenny survived is a testament to his level of physical fitness at the time he was attacked. Lesser people, myself included, would not have lived to tell the tale.

Great reading! Just don't read it before you go swimming in the ocean on your summer vacation.

Honours children's closeness to Spirit and is a beautiful story - being based on a true story all the more memorable.

Heard about this book on NPR and bought it for nephew cos I liked the idea and the story. What wasn't clearly told was just how incredibly rich Peter Sylvada's illustrations are... all oil paintings... they capture the beauty and harsh environment of Alaska, as well as slices of life from a native Alaskan village. Even southern dwellers can see some of why those who love it do so. The story is clearly and simply told, with a very likeable heroine, and gave me shivers at the end... but it was really the illustrations that blew me away.

I purchased this book (among many on here) for my unit on whales and the Inuit (Eskimo) people for my first grade class. This was a great book to share the relationship the people have with whales. It also shared a wonderful way the communities work together as well. What a great book! If you like whales, this is a great one to read to children!

Although technically a children's book, "A Symphony of Whales" shook me up and blew me away with rich illustrations and an even more potent story. Sweet and simple, author Schuch tells the beautiful story of an Inuit girl and her whale spirit friend "Narna" -- and (not to give away the ending) the dramatic escape of three thousand whales trapped in an icy inlet of the Pacific ocean.

Not to be cute, but the book really is as much for adults as for children. Illustrator Peter Sylvada's pictures must literally be seen to be believed.

I liked the girls kindness for the whales. She was cute and lovable. She was like a mother.

The book arrived extremely quickly - exceeding expectations - and in excellent condition. It made a beautiful birthday present for my friend. Thank you. ^_^

Trevor Norton is one of those lucky men who picked up an enthusiasm when he was a boy, nurtured it through his schooling, and kept at it through a happy lifetime of academic involvement within it. In _Underwater to Get Out of the Rain: A Love Affair with the Sea_ (Da Capo), he lets us in on why he has spent as much of his life as he could under the water, and whether you want to join him there or not, he does make a convincing case for a life passionately and usefully spent. After all, how many other experts on kelp do you know who may have changed the tactics of a war? In 1982, when British troops were dispatched to the Falklands because Argentina had invaded them, Norton was called up by an official from the Ministry of Defense: "'Are you the seaweed chappie?' said a man with a pound of plums in his mouth. 'Just a wee enquiry. I've been led to believe there are exceptionally large seaweeds off the coast of the erm... Falkland Islands.'" Norton confirms this, and explains that stems of the kelp might tangle the propellers of landing craft, but that there would be less of it in sheltered coves and inlets. "Really, by Jove, is that so?" came the reply, and so perhaps kelp and Norton's advice determined the landing places. It's one of countless odd and amusing stories, dished out with plenty of fascinating marine biology, in a thoroughly readable and enchanting book.

Norton had been an unruly child, "but as I learned more about living things, I became too busy to be bad." And he used his fascination for the sea to power his academic efforts (he is now Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool). The many chapters here cover Norton's underwater life all over the world, and convey his fascination with the creatures he sees. Barnacle mating, for instance, is extraordinary: "The bold, bisexual barnacle has a prick up its sleeve; its enormous penis is three or four times taller than the shell. Out it leaps, thin and arching, and dips into an adjacent barnacle as neat as a nib into a surprised inkwell." The creatures are amazing, and so are the odd people who come into Norton's life, or historical figures who inspired him. Pages here are devoted to Ed Ricketts, the marine biologist of Cannery Row and John Steinbeck's pal. Norton describes Liverpool in the sixties, but explains, "People have often asked me what it was like to be there. If only I'd known it was going to become 'Liverpool in the sixties' I'd have paid more attention." It was where he met his wife (who has done the charming illustrations for this book): "She was obviously bright and I would like to say that I was first attracted by her intellect, but in the age of miniskirts there was so much to admire that I got distracted."

Norton realizes his own good luck in timing. "Yesterday's expedition is today's excursion and tomorrow's package tour." He has been able to see pristine reefs and to write about them, but then faces the dilemma that since complex reef ecology is damaged by human visits, to celebrate the beauty of a specific reef is to "expose it to the dangers of excessive admiration." The coral reef state park in Florida, for instance, gets thousands of visitors a day, as well as damage by pollution and careless boat usage. It isn't the only instance Norton describes of the encroachment of the modern world into the oceans. Overfishing has changed the oceans forever, with much bigger nets, spotter planes to locate schools of fish, and sonar mounted on the nets to guide the skipper in enclosing his prey. "Fish have as much chance of evading a net as a tree has of dodging the ax." Especially distressing is his description of ruin within the waters of the Philippines by such fishing techniques as dynamiting and poisoning by bleach and cyanide. This is far too lively and cheery a book, however, to be overcome by such reflections. Norton is a witty writer with a fund of good stories to tell and a delight in the surprises of the human and the marine world, a delight that any reader will enjoy.

As the sub-title says, this is the story of a love affair with the sea. The author confesses to be an unruly child until he found the sea and then became too busy to be bad. His love has taken him to academic heights, to strange and exotic parts of the globe and to the depths of the ocean.

The book is part the natural history of the ocean, part the story of man's interferrence, part just stories, and part science. More perhaps than any of these, it's a vision into his own philosophy of life, the fascination that both he and the surface of the world is seven tenths salt water.

All in all, this is a delightful book. It is great to see that someone who starts out with a fascination about something is able to work in that area as a career and now many years later still holds that fascination. This fascination he then combines with the skills of a natural born story teller to produce a volume as entertaining as this.

As a young boy author Trevor Norton was fascinated by water: a fascination which would continue into adulthood, and which serves as the foundation of experience of UNDERWATER TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN, a blend of natural history and memoir. Norton's fascination would lead him to travel oceans of the world, to study the science and history of oceans, and to probe both the surface of the ocean and the world of a submerged laboratory. UNDERWATER TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN is a joyous celebration as well as a scientific investigation and a fine leisure read.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Trevor Norton is a very gifted man: he is undoubtedly a first-rate scientist, who enjoys his profession inmensely, but he has other virtues as well. First, he can write: every page is elegantly crafted, with a knack for the telling detail and a gift for the essential. In a few pages you are there with him, becoming acquainted with an underwater scene, or with a long-deceased biologist. Second, Norton is interested in everything, from science to history, reminding us how fascinating life itself can be, if only we care to look. And he has a sense of humor.

My favorite book from childhood. I have enjoyed it again as an adult reading it to my children. the story is beautifully self contained, the simple repetitive text is positively lyrical and despite the simplicity the story is full of charm and character. Perfect

I read this book to my kids in the 1980s and both loved it. It's nice to change some of the words to keep them interested. We made it into a funny story. Can you guess what we said the spot in the snow was?! I'm now trying to find my copy of the book from the attic, but am glad there are still a few out there in case I can't find mine. I can't wait to read to my grandson who is now 2.
Book about 2 animals, a bear, and another one (don't remember what kind), who see a spot in the snow and try to guess what it might be. It ends up being a wagon.

How many children would have never known what a puffin was, if not for this book? The simple but lovely illustrations are captivating as we look through all that white snow for that little black spot. A favorite of mine as a child, when I worked in a daycare a few years back I went looking for this book to read to the children and found it at the library. They were actually a little young for the book (3& 4 mostly) but I can guarantee those are now children who know what puffins are, and to always look for spots in the snow.

This book was my favorite book when I was a little girl. It taught me to belive in myself even when others were doubtful and to always belive in others.

This was my favorite childhood book, too. Even decades later I still remember the walrus, the puffin, the cart... Children will love this book. The drawings are eye-catching, and there's a subtle message that children will take with them when they close the book. Highly recommended.

Three seamen in the Merchant Marine when America was at war were Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Jim Longhi, this book's author. Not many people know Woody shipped out with the Merchant Marine in 1943 with nothing more than a seabag, well he took along a guitar, a mandolin, a case of books and a portable typewriter. One might have thought he was going to a concert and not to war, but Woody played guitar, wherever he went, the Grand Coulee Damn or U-boat infested waters. And with fellow folksinger Cisco along for the ride, you can bet the playing on that boat was mighty fine.

Though they had regular duties aboard, Woodie and Cisco were morale boosters and with U-boats lurking, storms raging, seas rough and waves high, they were certainly appreciated. On more than one occasion they saw other ships in their convoy go down, but this page turning book isn't only about the terror of the deep during war, it also has quite a few laughs thrown in. You just won't believe the cooking school bit Woodie, Cisco and Jim had to go through and you'll enjoy all heck out of their shore leaves. Still, war is grim business.

This is a must read for any fan of Woodie Guthrie's or Cisco Houston's. It's also a very good book which reads like fiction, though every word is true. I can't recommend this highly enough, it's a story about America, a story about folksingers, a story you'll never forget.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

The main reason I bought this book, and (unfortunately) it wasn't too easy to find, was to learn more about Cisco Houston. There hasn't been much written about him except a few pages of reference here and there in his contempories biographies and stories. In that regard, this novel didn't disappoint. Many sides of Cisco are shown - strong and solid, brilliant, an athlete, a quiet war hero looked up to by men from all walks of life, a fair and honest man with a strong sense of justice, a man among men who also liked his women, his booze, his gambling, and who would not mince words. Also, someone with a tender heart of gold. Woody is portrayed as the icon he is, at times almost a "wizard" able to snatch victory out of the clutches of defeat, able to rally huge groups of men and children from all cultures and walks of life with his singing. And the author, Jimmy Longhi, manages to bare his soul throughout much of this rollicking, constantly funny and often touching story which, for the most part, takes place during a less than two year period - the final two years of WWII - during the three times that Woody, Cisco and Jimmy shipped out with the Merchant Marines.
The style of this book is so entertaining, so fluid, so descriptive that it's amazing that Longhi's main walk of life is that of lawyer, not author (although he is also a playwrite). The story is filled with memorable characters - Davey Bananas, Nino Sala, Courtroom Kelly, Newington, Frank Strahele, the evil Jojo, Mando - to name a few. I really had trouble putting it down. Parts made me laugh out loud while others brought a tear to my eye. As a bonus, this story draws you into the realities of WWII. The extreme patriotism among men from all walks of life regardless of race (although archaic prejudicial customs are brought to light) or political conviction (the far left or "reds" were as much behind beating Hitler as the far right), the thoughts and fears of the soldiers before the Normandy invasion, the abject poverty of Sicily, northern Africa and Belfast. This is a great read and highly recommended.

As a long time listener to Woody, and Cisco I was familiar with Woody through his writings and the biographical material about him. However, Cisco, seemed to have only existence as Woody's "sidekick". This book introduces the reader to a remarkable, and very interesting person. Jimmy Longhi's book provides the reader with an opportunity to relive those days with three remarkable me

Most fans of Woody and Cisco know they made a few trips as merchant seamen during the War, and were torpedoed once and were on another that hit a mine. This wonderful book makes that period REAL, in excellent detail, because Jim Longhi was present. His depiction of Woody reveals a man who had been somewhat famous for three years, and who was still ten years away from being disabled by Huntington's Chorea. The Woody here is almost totally admirable...a bit nutty, but in a brave, sweet way. The book also represents perhaps the closest thing we'll get to a real biography of Cisco Houston, Woody's long-time best friend and arguably still the best singer of Guthrie songs. Meeting Jim Longhi, whose existence I was unaware of despite years of researching Woody and Cisco, was quite a pleasure. He's a fine writer, and obviously a good man, who can poke fun at himself, looking 50 years back at the zealotry of his youth. The book has just about everything...war, music, humor, exotic places, danger, hints of love and sex, fantastic coincidences, political debates---it would make a great movie in skilled hands. The character of Courtroom Kelly, introduced briefly in the mid-section of the memoir, is unforgettably hilarious. In l968, I spent more than 30 days as an Army private sailing to Vietnam on a troopship, so Jim's portrait of shipboard life heading to a war zone for troops and crew alike resonates with me. He and Woody and Cisco were usually mess attendants, but on one trip Jim was a cook and baker. He does a fine job proving how important such workers are to the men they feed. The most touching segment is how Woody insisted on singing to troops down in the hold during submarine attacks on the convoy, competing with the noise from depth charges, and sickness-causing storms, and even racist military policies keeping black and white soldiers from enjoying the same concert at the same time. One comes away even more a fan of Woody and Cisco than before, and with a new friend, Jim, whose singing career didn't survive the voyages, but who lived to tell us an interesting and important tale. Get the book and see for yourself.

This is a terrific tale of friendship, heroism and the power of a magnetic personality. While there have been numerous attempts to paint the definitive portrait of Woody, none have shown this particular picture. To the list of scalliwag, drunkard, genius, writer, singer, guitarist, vagabond and saint, we now must add "war hero."

Bearzi and Stanford state that "the evolution of intelligent life might be a likely eventuality rather than a bizarre fluke." The authors link two organismal groups (dolphins and great apes) based on their convergent social behaviors and illuminate the evolution of our own (human) intelligence. This book opens a door into a new realm of fascination within the animal kingdom and why conservation of these iconic creatures is imperative for their survival past 2100.

My review will be biased and I will keep it short, as I happen to be the brother of one of the Authors of "Beautiful Mind" (Maddalena).

Being myself a scientist who has been working on cetaceans for over 20 years, and an author and reviewer of several scientific publications, I am naturally inclined to strong criticism when I read this kind of literature.

And yet, I really like this book. It is elegantly written, full of intriguing stories and ideas, intellectually rich and even good-looking and pleasant to handle in its present novel-like format.

Craig and Maddalena chose a fascinating but also challenging subject and they managed to unfold it with a clear and understandable language and lots of real-life examples.

Their love for the animals gets across every single line of text, but there is no trace of romanticism, pietism or new age. Instead, the reader finds a clear conservation message and a vibrant call to ensure the protection and well-being of these magnificent and highly-evolved creatures.

Five stars.

Somewhere along the evolutionary path, cetaceans and the great apes parted ways and headed in different evolutionary directions...one to the forests and one to the oceans. And, that was quite some time ago; around 50 million years, and yet the two groups share many common threads behaviorally. How is that possible?

The answer lies in the development of the brain and adaptations to the surrounding environments of each of the species involved. Chimpanzees have adapted to forest life in one way, while gorillas another. The same can be said for dolphins as opposed to orcas and other cetacean species.

This book is an eloquently written look into the minds of the great apes, the cetaceans when compared to humans. It manages to enlighten while being highly entertaining and avoiding the trap of anthropomorphism that is so common when comparing animal species to humans. I would highly recommend this book to all, with the exception of staunch creationists, as it will make you look at dolphins and apes in an entirely new light.

I have always been interested in both primates and cetaceans and have read all of the books and articles that I can on the both of them. But this book takes it to a whole new level comparing two animals that seem very different in environment and in body structure. Its amazing how alike we all really are to one another. If you dont believe in the Darwinism theory of evolution this book is not for you. But if you are a true scientist and truly interested in learning about the mind of animals that may truly be very close to humans in intelligence this book is for you.

El libro como información es muy bueno. A lo largo de todo el libro se puede encontrar un compendio excelente acerca de todo lo relacionado a la biología marina, con buena información y con una aparente excelente bibliografía. El único gran problema son los gráficos, fuera excelente a full color, pero todos los gráficos son en escala de grises.

I personally feel this book is one of the best comprehensive reviews of marine mammal biology out there. Both of the editors as well as all of the authors of the book are reknowned in their fields of marine mammal science. Reynolds and Rommel compiled a great resource for aspiring marine scientists as well as professionals.

El contenido es muy bueno, una obra de consulta permanente y actualizada. Cubre todos los enfoques. Realmente es un muy buen compendio de información que por lo general es difícil de conseguir.

excelente mamotreto, grandiosas imagenes y contenido