New diving-related books have been few and far between lately, though more might well slip onto the market as Christmas approaches.
However, US publisher Princeton University Press has just released four propositions for divers from beginner to fully qualified marine biologist and, even if not for you, there might just be some useful gift ideas in there.
Three of them are likely to appeal to a wide range of divers, because they’re devoted to popular marine-life species – sharks, octopuses and big mammals. The fourth? Well, that one is a little more esoteric.
While many divers would cross the world to be in the water with hammerhead sharks, giant Pacific octopuses or blue whales, few are likely to book a holiday with seaweed-spotting in mind. Yet a book about algae will also find its own audience.
Sharks first – of course. The Lives Of Sharks: A Natural History Of Shark Life is written by marine science professor Daniel C Abel and shark biologist R Dean Grubbs, based in South Carolina and Florida respectively.
What applies to this book applies equally to the other new Lives Of…: the production is superb, with high-quality matt pages between hard covers.
In this case we get the acme of big-name shark photography, generously supplied and well reproduced. I was immediately grabbed by a rare shot of a lemon shark being born, taken by Doug Perrine, and a reef shark eating a lionfish. The photos are matched by excellent line and tone drawings by Sarah Skeate and professional typography and page layout.
The introductory chapters deal with evolution and diversity, adaptations and ecology. Then we get into spreads devoted to individual species, divided into four categories: open ocean, deep sea, estuaries and rivers and continental shelves.
There are more than 500 shark species out there so this book is far from exhaustive – there are excellent field guides for that purpose. Instead, it aims to give an all-round picture of the shark world and leave the reader better-informed.
The closing chapters inevitably deal with sharks and us (we know which comes off worse), and the various threats to sharks are entwined throughout the book. But it’s a thoughtful, easy read, suitable either for dipping into or working through, and would look good on any shark diver’s shelves.
ISBN: 9780691244310. Hardback, 288pp, 19x25cm, £30
The Lives of Octopuses And Their Relatives: A Natural History Of Cephalopods is a matching volume, so see above for comments about its physical appearance (except that the illustrator is John Woodcock).
Marine biologist Danna Staaf spent six years at Stanford studying Humboldt squid, an intimidating cephalopod species that has always fascinated me – not that I’ve ever seen one under water.
I would have liked to read more about them here, but was happy to be diverted by the peculiarities of football octopuses or diamondback squid, the only cephalopods known to travel in monogamous pairs.
The author has a compelling writing style, though you could buy this book only to look at the pictures, because the quality of underwater photography is impressive. One caveat: the picture credit layout at the back was conceived to avoid repetition but it does make it time-consuming for the reader to find a photographer’s name.
There are quite a few blackwater photos but many of those shot on the reef are spectacularly well-defined and colourful.
The sections are again divided by habitat, so from beaches, tide-pools and flats we move on to seagrass, kelp and rocky reefs through corals to open ocean, midwater and the deep sea via a mind-boggling procession of diverse alien creatures. Staaf covers a lot of ground with a light touch, and this is a book I would happily read and revisit.
ISBN: 9780691244303. Hardback, 288pp, 19x25cm, £30
Sea Mammals: The Past and Present Lives Of Our Oceans’ Cornerstone Species is mainly concerned with cetaceans and pinnipeds, although seacows, bears, otters and some extinct animals also get a look-in. Written by Annalisa Berta, it is in a slightly smaller format than the Lives Of… books..
I found it less appealing than the sharks and octopuses pair, because the format seemed cramped for its subject matter, with slightly dated-looking typography and text set wide across each page.
Where clear photography is not available, paleo-illustrator Bob Nicholls obliges, and most species are dealt with over a spread. I found much of the interest in this book lay in the extinct species but also in those newly discovered – scientists are still coming across cetaceans we didn’t know existed until recently, such as Rice’s whale.
More than 50 species are covered here, and they are cleverly linked through categories – evolution, discovery, biology, behaviour, and ecology & conservation – to assist with the learning process. This book might suffer a little by comparison with the Lives Of…, but it still makes for an enjoyable and informative read.
ISBN: 9780691236643. Hardback, 224pp, 17x23cm, £25
I left The Lives Of Seaweeds: A Natural History Of Our Planet’s Seaweed & Other Algae by environmental consultant Julie A Phillips until last because it is of less obvious interest to divers, even though it’s a companion volume to the sharks and octopuses books and shares the same lofty photographic and general production values. John Woodcock is again the illustrator.
It’s technical and perhaps more one for the marine biologists, but this isn’t to doubt the importance of the subject. Algae extract billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere to store in the deep ocean every year and, as Phillips points out, in the future they are likely to become a food source, biofuel, biodegradable packaging and medicine.
It’s enough for me to understand that, but dip into this book and the chances are that you’ll start noticing and appreciating underwater plant life in an entirely new way.
ISBN: 9780691228556. Hardback, 224pp, 19x25cm, £30
Other book reviews on Divernet: August 2023, April 2023, February 2023, December 2022, August 2022, April 2022
