Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116869 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 457 pages

Synopsis
Finally, a comprehensive fish identification guide covering the fish-rich reefs of the Pacific. It contains 2,500 underwater photographs of 2,000 species from four of the best marine life authors/photographers in the business. Their collaboration makes it possible for underwater naturalists to identify fishes from Thailand to Tahiti with a single, compact, easy-to-use, no-nonsense reference. 108 fish families are presented in one of 20 Identification groups based on a family's related visual or behavioural characteristics, such as Large Oval / Colourful or Sand/Burrow Dwellers. Likewise, every effort has been made to group similar appearing species together.

Customer Reviews

An ambitious work
This is a very ambitious work - the number of Indo-Pacific fish species illustrated is simply staggering, often showing regional variations and juvenile forms. On the other side, image quality and reproduction are often disappointing, and the minimal texts limit its scope somewhat. It will make an unbeatable identification and learning combo when paired with the equally interesting but infinitely better illustrated A DIVER'S GUIDE TO REEF LIFE and A DIVER'S GUIDE TO UNDERWATER MALAYSIA MACROLIFE by Andrea and Antonella Ferrari - both featuring excellent written texts, exquisite color photographs and - in the case of the latter - hundreds of entries for cephalopods, crustaceans, nudibranchs and various other invertebrates. With these three field guides in your library almost no Indo-Pacific fish or critter will be able to escape identification!

Best of it's type
For divers who are keen to spot the differences between two very similar species of fish, this is the best book on the market. Although no one book ever covers everything, this one does it's best to show the minor variations within fish families and even points out how to look for a defining feature. All main fish groups are included and the book is entirely photographic.

My best guide to recognise marine life
I have been diving in Sulawesi, and this book has been indispensable to recognise and enjoy all the different and peculiar underwater creatures of the Tropical Pacific.
There are lots of useful pictures, with short essential description.
The book is quite complete, but due to the incredible high marine diversity in this area, I found useful to accompany the review of the marine life encountered during the dives with other books, about crustacea, nudibranches, cephalopods or general ones, such as "Divers Guide to Underwater Malaysia Macrolife" from Andrea Ferrari, full of fantastic pictures and UW photograpy tips.