A practical, up-to-date, comprehensive guidebook for divers, naturalists and students, featuring more than 1000 color photographs of 800 species of ocean life.

From tide pools to coral reefs and the open ocean beyond lies a world abounding with an assortment of colorful fish and fascinating creatures. The lure of the life that inhabits the ocean's reefs and open water is no secret to scuba enthusiasts and snorkelers who enjoy the opportunity to gaze upon this wonderful world through their dive masks. Reef Life identifies the most-likely encountered underwater life in the tropical marine environment, featuring more than 800 beautiful color photographs that provide the keys to this magnificent world.

A gallery of more than 400 species offers readers an extensive identification guide to the most-likely encountered fishes and features each in detail: name, species, habitat, range and a description particular to the animal covered. With sections on invertebrates and algae, this guide reveals much about the range of animals and plants in the undersea ecosystem. Included is behavioral information on feeding, mimicry, and symbiosis, providing insights into natural survival strategies taking place among animals beneath the ocean surface.

The clear, concise descriptions of the myriad of animals in the tropical oceans are collected in this handy, portable and comprehensive reference for use in the field or at the desk. The surveys of the tropical ocean regions and sea life around the world include:

• The Caribbean
• The Hawaiian Islands
• French Polynesia
• The Fijian Islands
• The Philippines and South China Sea
• Micronesia
• The Indonesian Archipelago
• Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
• The Great Barrier Reef
• Western Thailand and Andaman Sea
• The Maldives and Western Indian Ocean
• The Red Sea
• Tropical Eastern Pacific.

The author of The Book of Sharks, Imagining Atlantis, and Encyclopedia of the Sea turns his gaze to the tuna--one of the biggest, fastest, and most highly evolved marine animals and the source of some of the world's most popular delicacies--now hovering on the brink of extinction. In recent years, the tuna's place on our palates has come under scrutiny, as we grow increasingly aware of our own health and the health of our planet. Here, Ellis explains how a fish that was once able to thrive has become a commodity, in a book that shows how the natural world and the global economy converge on our plates. The longest migrator of any fish species, an Atlantic northern bluefin can travel from New England to the Mediterranean, then turn around and swim back; in the Pacific, the northern bluefin can make a round-trip journey from California to Japan. The fish can weigh in at 1,500 pounds and, in an instant, pick up speed to fifty-five miles per hour. But today the fish is the target of the insatiable sushi market, particularly in Japan, where an individual piece can go for seventy-five dollars. Ellis introduces us to the high-stakes world of tuna ranches, where large schools of half-grown tuna are caught in floating corrals and held in pens before being fattened, killed, gutted, frozen, and shipped to the Asian market. Once on the brink of bankruptcy, the world's tuna ranches--in Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and North Africa--have become multimillion-dollar enterprises. Experts warn that the fish are dying out and environmentalists lobby for stricter controls, while entire coastal ecosystems are under threat. The extinction of the tuna would mean not onlythe end of several species but dangerous consequences for the earth as a whole. In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky's Cod, John Cole's Striper, John Hersey's Blues--and of course, Ellis's own Great White Shark--this book will forever change the way we think about fish and fishing.

Documenting his life among whales, a field biologist addresses a wide range of subjects--from the purpose of the brain to peaceful cohabitation among the world's creatures--and offers information and stories about the ocean world

A New York Times Notable Book
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year

**A Library Journal Best Book of 2015 **
**A Christian Science Monitor Top Ten Book of September**

In a world dominated by people and rapid climate change, species large and small are increasingly vulnerable to extinction. In Resurrection Science, journalist M. R. O'Connor explores the extreme measures scientists are taking to try and save them, from captive breeding and genetic management to de-extinction. Paradoxically, the more we intervene to save species, the less wild they often become. In stories of sixteenth-century galleon excavations, panther-tracking in Florida swamps, ancient African rainforests, Neanderthal tool-making, and cryogenic DNA banks, O'Connor investigates the philosophical questions of an age in which we "play god" with earth's biodiversity.

Each chapter in this beautifully written book focuses on a unique species--from the charismatic northern white rhinoceros to the infamous passenger pigeon--and the people entwined in the animals' fates. Incorporating natural history and evolutionary biology with conversations with eminent ethicists, O'Connor's narrative goes to the heart of the human enterprise: What should we preserve of wilderness as we hurtle toward a future in which technology is present in nearly every aspect of our lives? How can we co-exist with species when our existence and their survival appear to be pitted against one another?