One of the classic works of marine biology, a favorite for generations, has now been completely revised and expanded. Between Pacific Tides is a book for all who find the shore a place of excitement, wonder, and beauty, and an unsurpassed introductory text for both students and professionals.
This book describes the habits and habitats of the animals that live in one of the most prolific life zones of the world-the rocky shores and tide pools of the Pacific Coast of the United States. The intricate and fascinating life processes of these creatures are described with affectionate care. The animals are grouped according to their most characteristic habitat, whether rocky shore, sandy beach, mud flat, or wharf piling, and the authors discuss their life history, physiology, and community relations, and the influence of wave shock and shifting tide level.
Though the basic purpose and structure-and much of the text-of the book remain the same, content has been increased by about 20 percent; a multitude of changes and additios has been made in the text; the Annotated Systematic Index and General Bibliography have been updated and greatly expanded (now almost 2,300 entries); more than 200 new photographs and drawings have been incorporated; and an entirely new chapter has been added-a topical presentation of the several factors influencing distribution of organisms along the shore. This edition also includes John Steinbeck's Foreword to the 1948 edition.
An unexpected, energetic look at world history on sea and land from the bestselling author of Salt and The Basque History of the World
Cod, Mark Kurlansky's third work of nonfiction and winner of the 1999 James Beard Award, is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the staple of the medieval diet? Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic people with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were legendary. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world's folly? "Every once in a while a writer of particular skill takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight. Such is the case of Mark Kurlansky and the codfish." -David McCullough, author of The Wright Brothers and 1776
"If there was a price placed on clean water we might start treating it like it has value. Maybe when it's gone we'll realize we can't drink oil or money." --Dave Matthews
Less than 1 percent of the world's water is fresh and potable--and no more will ever be available. Thanks to pollution, global warming, and population growth, water access is poised to become today's most explosive global issue. This book, based on the film Last Call at the Oasis by Academy Award(R)-winning director Jessica Yu, offers insights into the coming water crisis from visionary scientists, policymakers, activists, and environmentalists, including:
- ROBERT MORAN on how oil and mineral development pollute and divert water supplies--often beyond public scrutiny
- PETER H. GLEICK on discovering the "soft path" to global water security
- ROBERT GLENNON on how the power of markets can help protect the world's water
- LYNN HENNING on how a family farmer became a passionate "water activist"
- ALEX PRUD'HOMME on how the water crisis affects us all
- GARY WHITE on how innovative social and economic strategies can make clean water available even for the world's poorest people
- HADLEY ARNOLD AND PETER ARNOLD on how arid regions like America's Southwest can wisely husband water supplies for cities and farmers alike
- ROBYN BEAVERS on how today's smartest businesses are making sustainable water management a competitive advantage
- ZEM JOAQUIN on nine "ecofabulous" ways of saving water at home--and doing it with style
- BILL MCDONOUGH on how smart design can preserve water's "Endless Resourcefulness" for generations to come
No resource on earth is more precious--or more endangered--than water. Last Call at the Oasis is a powerful tool for learning about the water challenges we face as well as the remarkable solutions available to us--if we have the will to use them.
New insights into the world's most-feared predator.
Sharks are exquisite creatures refined and honed by competitive forces that have lived in balance with ocean prey for millions of years. They live in every ocean habitat on Earth, from shallow tide pools to the deep abyss, and from the open ocean to where rivers meet the sea. In Sharks a top research scientist explores what has made sharks such successful predators, how they differ from other animals in their biological success and what unique advantages evolution has conferred. Sharks is illustrated with uniquely sourced photography demonstrating newly observed behavior, scientific findings and recent developments in our understanding of how they live. Sharks is both a spectacular visual celebration, and a scientific document that explores in detail their unique physiology.
A powerful swimming stroke is delivered from sharks' muscles directly to their tough skin shell forcing their body to "inflate" like a car tire with each flex, then quickly become fluid to glide as the muscles relax. By diving through the various water layers, a shark may locate and follow chemical scent trails that could lead to food concentrations. Thus a shark moving from one temperature layer to the next can expose its sensory equipment to new chemical cues and potentially new food sources. Some deep-sea sharks also lure prey with their light-producing organs.
Salvador Jorgensen has combined the latest discoveries of new species, newly-documented shark behavior, and the best photographs, to give a "state-of-knowledge" picture of sharks. Unique pictures of shark births, recently discovered creatures from the Ocean Census research, and details of sharks' skin, eyes, teeth and heads (including a comparison of nine different hammerhead varieties) make this a book every shark enthusiast will want. It will also debunk many myths about shark behavior, and give libraries a true, 21st-century documentation of a very popular wild animal.
Sharks features illustrated profiles of species living in the shallow reefs and also those living in the open ocean along with a unique "cladogram" family tree that opens into a gatefold and profiles every known species.
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
IndieBound Bestseller
One of USA Today's "5 Books Not to Miss"
One of Forbes' "Best Summer Reads
One of the LA Times' "21 New and Classic Books to Keep You in Touch with the Natural World"
Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world's most elusive fish--the eel--and a reflection on the human condition
Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that scientists and philosophers have, for centuries, been obsessed with what has become known as the "eel question" Where do eels come from? What are they? Are they fish or some other kind of creature altogether? Even today, in an age of advanced science, no one has ever seen eels mating or giving birth, and we still don't understand what drives them, after living for decades in freshwater, to swim great distances back to the ocean at the end of their lives. They remain a mystery.
Drawing on a breadth of research about eels in literature, history, and modern marine biology, as well as his own experience fishing for eels with his father, Patrik Svensson crafts a mesmerizing portrait of an unusual, utterly misunderstood, and completely captivating animal. In The Book of Eels, we meet renowned historical thinkers, from Aristotle to Sigmund Freud to Rachel Carson, for whom the eel was a singular obsession. And we meet the scientists who spearheaded the search for the eel's point of origin, including Danish marine biologist Johannes Schmidt, who led research efforts in the early twentieth century, catching thousands upon thousands of eels, in the hopes of proving their birthing grounds in the Sargasso Sea.
Blending memoir and nature writing at its best, Svensson's journey to understand the eel becomes an exploration of the human condition that delves into overarching issues about our roots and destiny, both as humans and as animals, and, ultimately, how to handle the biggest question of all: death. The result is a gripping and slippery narrative that will surprise and enchant.
Dolphins are highly evolved and social animals, with their own language of clicks and whistles and elaborate courtship rituals. Their obvious curiosity about the world extends to humans, if only for a few moments of fun, but unfortunately this factor of their intelligence has made them targets for exploitation. Add that to pollution, toxins and the practice in some cultures to kill them for food, dolphins, while not yet an endangered species, are continually threatened.
A charming deep dive into the hidden world of seaweed, filled with fascinating facts and beautiful illustrations of the most sensuous family of water plants.
Seaweed is so familiar, and yet we know so little about it. Even its names--pepper dulse, sea lettuce, bladderwrack--are mystifying.
In this exquisitely illustrated portrait, poet and artist Miek Zwamborn shares discoveries of seaweed's history, culture, and science. We encounter its medicinal and gastronomic properties and long history of human use, from the Neolithic people of the Orkney islands to sushi artisans in modern Japan. We find seaweed troubling Columbus on his voyages across the Atlantic and intriguing Humboldt in the Sargasso Sea. We follow its inspiration for artists from Hokusai to Matisse, its collection by Victorians as pressed specimens in books, its adoption into fashion and dance, and its potential for combating climate change, as a sustainable food source and a means of reducing methane emissions in cattle.
And, of course, we learn how to eat seaweed, through a fabulous series of recipes based around these "truffles of the seas."
On dry land, most organisms are confined to the surface, or at most to altitudes of a hundred meters--the height of the tallest trees. In the oceans, though, living space has both vertical and horizontal dimensions: with an average depth of 3800 meters, the oceans offer 99% of the space on Earth where life can develop. And the deep sea, which has been immersed in total darkness since the dawn of time, occupies 85% of ocean space, forming the planet's largest habitat. Yet these depths abound with mystery. The deep sea is mostly uncharted--only about 5 percent of the seafloor has been mapped with any reasonable degree of detail--and we know very little about the creatures that call it home. Current estimates about the number of species yet to be found vary between ten and thirty million. The deep sea no longer has anything to prove; it is without doubt Earth's largest reservoir of life.
Combining the latest scientific discoveries with astonishing color imagery, The Deep takes readers on a voyage into the darkest realms of the ocean. Revealing nature's oddest and most mesmerizing creatures in crystalline detail, The Deep features more than two hundred color photographs of terrifying sea monsters, living fossils, and ethereal bioluminescent creatures, some photographed here for the very first time. Accompanying these breathtaking photographs are contributions from some of the world's most respected researchers that examine the biology of deep-sea organisms, the ecology of deep-sea habitats, and the history of deep-sea exploration.
An unforgettable visual and scientific tour of the teeming abyss, The Deep celebrates the incredible diversity of life on Earth and will captivate anyone intrigued by the unseen--and unimaginable--creatures of the deep sea.
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
The sapiens of the sea, whales are the other intelligent, social, and loquacious animal. But they seem to swim away the more people chase after them in an effort to communicate and connect. Why does the meaning of their mesmerizing songs continue to elude us? In times of unprecedented environmental and social loss, Whale Song ponders the problems facing ocean ecosystems and offers lessons from those depths for human social life and intimacy. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
