This top-selling series introduces the wild creatures of the world and examines the natural world. Good general introductions for ages 10+, these volumes contain the knowledge, personal experiences, and research of leading naturalists and scientists, accompanied by stunning photography. Unless otherwise noted (*), all volumes are sturdy paperback.

Delphus E. Carpenter (1877-1951) was Colorado's commissioner of interstate streams during a time when water rights were a legal battleground for western states. A complex, unassuming man as rare and cunning in politics and law as the elusive silver fox of the Rocky Mountain West, Carpenter boldly relied on negotiation instead of endless litigation to forge agreements among states first, before federal intervention. In Silver Fox of the Rockies, Daniel Tyler tells Carpenter's story and that of the great interstate water compacts he helped create. Those compacts, produced in the early twentieth century, have guided not only agricultural use but urban growth and development throughout much of the American West to this day. In Carpenter's time, most western states relied on the doctrine of prior appropriation--first in time, first in right--which granted exclusive use of resources to those who claimed them first, regardless of common needs. Carpenter feared that population growth and rapid agricultural development in states sharing the same river basins would rob Colorado of its right to a fair share of water. To avoid that eventuality, Carpenter invoked the compact clause of the U.S. Constitution, a clause previously used to settle boundary disputes, and applied it to interstate water rights. The result was a mechanism by which complex issues involving interstate water rights could be settled through negotiation without litigating them before the U.S. Supreme Court. Carpenter believed in the preservation of states' rights in order to preserve the constitutionally mandated balance between state and federal authority. Today, water remains critically important to the American West, and thegreat interstate water compacts Carpenter helped engineer constitute his most enduring legacy. Of particular significance is the Colorado River Compact of 1922, without which Hoover Dam could never have been built.

Part travelogue, part history, and part environmental treatise, "Mekong - The Occluding River" is above all else an urgent warning that factors such as pollution, ecological devastation, and the depletion of natural resources are threatening the very existence of the Mekong River. Author Ngo The Vinh combines his vivid travel notes and collection of photographs with a meticulously researched history of the environmental degradation of the Mekong River. Translated from Vietnamese, the best-selling treatise outlines the myriad threats facing the river today. From oil shipments feeding the industrial cities of southwestern China to gigantic hydroelectric dams known as the Mekong Cascades in Yunnan province, China is the worst environmental offender, though the other nations along Mekong's banks behave no better. From Thailand to Laos to Vietnam, hydroelectric dams that threaten the Mekong and its inhabitants are being built at an alarming rate. To save the Mekong, Ngo The Vinh calls upon all the nations that benefit from its life-giving water to observe the "Spirit of the Mekong" in the implementation of all future development projects. To achieve this end, there must be a concerted and sustained commitment to cooperation and sustainability. At this critical cross-roads, we should remind ourselves of the mantra from Sea World San Diego: "Extinction is forever. Endangered means we still have time."

This veritable marine treasure trove of a book is richly illustrated by the author, with fifty of the most beautiful, easily encountered, and sometimes astonishing marine organisms found on British coasts, from seemingly exotic seahorses and starfish, to peculiar sea-potatoes and sea lemons. Together, these characterful critters paint a colourful picture of life between the tides: starfish that, upon losing an arm, can grow a new one; baby sharks hatching from their fancifully named 'mermaid' purses'; ethereal moon jellyfish pulsating in the current and, on some seabeds, even coral. Beachcombing, overturning a boulder or simply parting the strands of seaweed in a rock pool offer a glimpse into a thriving underwater world of curious creatures. Inspired by the Oxford University of Natural History's exceptionally rich zoology collections, which contain millions of specimens amassed from centuries of expeditions, this book tells the story of life on the seashore.

From the author of the international Bestseller Breath Covering a diving championship in Greece on a hot and sticky assignment for Outside magazine, James Nestor discovered free diving. He had stumbled on one of the most extreme sports in existence: a quest to extend the frontiers of human experience, in which divers descend without breathing equipment, for hundreds of feet below the water, for minutes after they should have died from lack of oxygen. Sometimes they emerge unconscious, or bleeding from the nose and ears, and sometimes they don't come up at all. The free divers were Nestor's way into an exhilarating and dangerous world of deep-sea pioneers, underwater athletes, scientists, spear fishermen, billionaires and ordinary men and women who are poised on the brink of some amazing discoveries about the ocean. Soon he was visiting the scientists who live 60ft underwater (and are permanently high on nitrous dioxide), swimming with the notorious man-eating sharks of Reunion and descending thousands of feet in a homemade submarine. And on the way down, he learnt about the amazing amphibious reflexes activated in the human body under deep-water conditions, why dolphins were injected with LSD in an attempt to teach them to talk, and why sharks like AC/DC. The sea covers seventy per cent of Earth's surface, and still contains answers to questions about the world we are only beginning to ask: Deep blends science and adventure to uncover its amazing secrets.

The sea has been an endless source of fascination, at once both alluring and mysterious, a place of wonder and terror. The Sea Journal contains first-hand records by a great range of travellers of their encounters with strange creatures and new lands, full of dangers and delights, pleasures and perils. In this remarkable gathering of private journals, log books, letters and diaries, we follow the voyages of intrepid sailors, from the frozen polar wastes to South Seas paradise islands, as they set down their immediate impressions of all they saw. They capture their experiences while at sea, giving us a precious view of the oceans and the creatures that live in them as they were when they were scarcely known and right up to the present day. In a series of biographical portraits, we meet officers and ordinary sailors, cooks and whalers, surgeons and artists, explorers and adventurers. A handful of contemporary mariners provide their thoughts on how art remains integral to their voyaging lives. Often still bearing the traces of their nautical past, the intriguing and enchanting sketches and drawings in this book brilliantly capture the spirit of the oceans and the magic of the sea.

Enthralling tales of the sea, rivers and lakes from around the globe.

Folklore of the seas and rivers has a resonance in cultures all over the world. Watery hopes, fears and dreams are shared by all peoples where rivers flow and waves crash. This fascinating book covers English sailor superstitions and shape-shifting pink dolphins of the Amazon, Scylla and Charybdis, the many guises of Mami Wata, the tale of the Yoruba River spirit, the water horses of the Scottish lochs, the infamous mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, and much more.

Accompanied by stunning woodcut illustrations, popular authors Dee Dee Chainey and Willow Winsham explore the deep history and enduring significance of water folklore the world over, from mermaids, selkies and sirens to ghostly ships and the fountains of youth.

With this book, Folklore Thursday aims to encourage a sense of belonging across all cultures by showing how much we all have in common.

The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of Earth's surface--more than all of the planet's landmasses combined. It contains half of the world's water, hides its deepest places, and is home to some of the most dazzling creatures known to science. The companion book to the spectacular five-part series on PBS produced by Natural History New Zealand, Big Pacific breaks the boundaries between land and sea to present the Pacific Ocean and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before. Illustrated in full color throughout, Big Pacific blends a wealth of stunning Ultra HD images with spellbinding storytelling to take you into a realm teeming with exotic life rarely witnessed up close--until now. The book is divided into four sections, each one focusing on an aspect of the Pacific. "Passionate Pacific" looks at the private lives of sea creatures, with topics ranging from the mating behaviors of great white sharks to the monogamy of wolf eels, while "Voracious Pacific" covers hunting and feeding. In "Mysterious Pacific," you will be introduced to the Pacific's more extraordinary creatures, like the pufferfish and firefly squid, and explore some of the region's eerier locales, like the turtle tombs of Borneo and the skull caves of Papua New Guinea. "Violent Pacific" examines the effects of events like natural disasters on the development of the Pacific Ocean's geography and the evolution of its marine life. Providing an unparalleled look at a diverse range of species, locations, and natural phenomena, Big Pacific is truly an epic excursion to one of the world's last great frontiers. Five-part series on PBS: *Big Pacific will air Wednesdays on PBS, June 21-July 19, 2017

All NEW from Kate Frost. Follow your heart and then your dreams...'A perfect escape to Italy, with sunshine, devastating secrets, tears, smiles and a hero you will fall in love with.' - Jennifer Bohnet 'A beautiful novel about life choices and moving on, set on the sundrenched island of Capri. Should be read by a pool with a glass of Prosecco in one hand' - T.A. Williams 'A lovely escapist tale full of heart, friendship and promise' - Annie Robertson Best friends since childhood, Fern Chambers and Stella Shaw have been through everything together and are at a crossroads in their lives. Carefree Stella has a monumental secret and down trodden Fern's happy life is not all it seems. With their 40th birthdays approaching, a luxury holiday to the island of Capri is a chance for them to reconnect, let their hair down and celebrate in style. But untold truths and frustration bubble beneath the surface, turning what should be a holiday of a lifetime into an opportunity to make life-changing decisions. Far from home, where anything feels possible, secrets are revealed, heartache is shared, love discovered and new friendships forged. Will their Italian dream turn into a nightmare or lead to newfound happiness?

Collected here in this omnibus edition are Henry David Thoreau's most important works including A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau, including Civil Disobedience; and of course, Walden. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is both a remembrance of an intensely spiritual moment in Henry David Thoreau's life and a memoriam to his older brother who accompanied him on the trip shortly before his death. Full of fascinating literary musings and philosophical speculations, this book is a true precursor to Walden. The Selected Essays contains nineteen essays (including Civil Disobedience). Thoreau was one of America's best known and most influential writers. His work has helped shape the American Discourse and had a lasting effect on the environmental movement in America. Walden is one of the best-known non-fiction books ever written by an American. It details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walden was written with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau hoped to isolate himself from society in order to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simplicity and self-reliance were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by Transcendentalist philosophy. This book is full of fascinating musings and reflections. As pertinent and relevant today as it was when it was first written.

For author M. Scotty Lamkin, a conventional lifestyle at a traditional job was a horribly mundane way to approach life. On January 16, 1979, he arrived in Alaska with fifty dollars in his pocket, two duffel bags, and a backpack. A long way from his Kentucky homeland, Lamkin journeyed to Alaska expecting adventure, and he was not disappointed. Chance Is the Providence of Adventurers narrates many of Lamkin's true-life escapades in Alaska's remote bush country.

In this half-travelogue, half-memoir, Lamkin tells the sometimes funny, sometimes deadly, stories of his experiences as a professional guide and adventurer-waking up a brown bear at close range, sinking a boat in frigid Alaska waters, crashing bush planes, throwing rocks at bears, and experiencing some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth.

"Chance Is the Providence of Adventurers" offers a glimpse into the flavor of Alaskan life, provides a firsthand view of the wonders of untamed nature and wildlife, and demonstrates the results of taking a chance to change your life.

In this intimate portrait of an island lobstering community and an eccentric band of renegade biologists, journalist Trevor Corson escorts the reader onto the slippery decks of fishing boats, through danger-filled scuba dives, and deep into the churning currents of the Gulf of Maine to learn about the secret undersea lives of lobsters.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

A marine biologist vividly brings alive the extraordinary ecosystem of the deep ocean--a realm about which we know less than we do about the Moon--and shows how protecting rather than exploiting it will benefit mankind. "The oceans have always shaped human lives," writes marine biologist Helen Scales in her vibrant new book The Brilliant Abyss, but the surface and the very edges have so far mattered the most. "However, one way or another, the future ocean is the deep ocean." A golden era of deep-sea discovery is underway. Revolutionary studies in the deep are rewriting the very notion of life on Earth and the rules of what is possible. In the process, the abyss is being revealed as perhaps the most amazing part of our planet, with a topography even more varied and extreme than its Earthbound counterpart. Teeming with unsuspected life, an extraordinary interconnected ecosystem deep below the waves has a huge effect on our daily lives, influencing climate and weather systems, with the potential for much more--good or bad depending on how it is exploited. Currently the fantastic creatures that live in the deep--many of them incandescent in a world without light--and its formations capture and trap vast quantities of carbon that would otherwise poison our atmosphere; and novel bacteria as yet undiscovered hold the promise of potent new medicines. Yet the deep also holds huge mineral riches lusted after by many nations and corporations; mining them could ultimately devastate the planet, compounded by the deepening impacts of ubiquitous pollutants and rampant overfishing. Eloquently and passionately, Helen Scales brings to life the majesty and mystery of an alien realm that nonetheless sustains us, while urgently making clear the price we could pay if it is further disrupted. The Brilliant Abyss is at once a revelation and a clarion call to preserve this vast unseen world.

G. E. Rumphius, also known as the "Indian Pliny," was one of the great tropical naturalists of the seventeenth century. Born in Germany, he spent most of his life in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, stationed on the island of Ambon in eastern Indonesia. He wrote two major works; this one, the first modern work on tropical fauna, was published posthumously in Dutch in 1705. A classic text of natural history, it is now available in English for the first time.

The descriptions in "The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet cover "the gamut of organisms found in the seas surrounding Ambon--crabs, shrimp, sea urchins, mussels--as well as minerals and rare concretions taken from animals and plants. A series of exquisite etchings accompanies the descriptions. The book has been masterfully translated and extensively annotated by E. M. Beekman, whose introduction provides the first biography of Rumphius in English that incorporates new material.

50 Things to Do at the Beach transforms a day in the sand and sun into a meaningful and inspiring return to nature. Environmental scientist and professional surfer Easkey Britton teaches us how to peek into the mysterious deep, harness the calming nature of the sea, and engage in fun play, like wave running and swimming. The latest addition to our Explore More series, 50 Things to Do at the Beach shows us how to enjoy the many health benefits of time spent by the sea and give back to the waters that sustain us. Kid-friendly activities make this a must-have for families enjoying time together by the sea, ocean, or lake. Vacationers and seadwellers alike will find new and unexpected ways to enjoy the water. Each section is beautifully illustrated to explain the activities and bring the message to life. Surf's up!

The study of coelenterates is now one of the most active fields of invertebrate zoology. There are many reasons for this, and not everyone would agree on them, but certain facts stand out fairly clearly. One of them is that many of the people who study coelenterates do so simply because they are interested in the animals for their own sake. This, however, would be true for other invertebrate groups and cannot by itself explain the current boom in coelenterate work. The main reasons for all this activity seem to lie in the considerable concentration of research effort and funding into three broad, general areas of biology: marine ecology, cellular-developmental biology and neurobiology, in all of which coelenterates have a key role to play. They are the dominant organisms, or are involved in an important way, in a variety of marine habitats, of which coral reefs are only one, and this automatically ensures their claims on the attention of ecologists and marine scientists. Secondly, the convenience of hydra and some other hydroids as experimental animals has long made them a natural choice for a variety of studies on growth, nutrition, symbiosis, morphogenesis and sundry aspects of cell biology. Finally, the phylogenetic position of the coelenterates as the lowest metazoans having a nervous system makes them uniquely interesting to those neurobiologists and behaviorists who hope to gain insights into the functioning of higher nervous systems by working up from the lowest level.

Fishermen, marine aquarists, biologists studying seashore and coastal waters, and those involved in trading shellfish and even restaurateurs are aware of the great diversity of crustaceans inhabiting the seas around the British Isles, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Crayfishes, Lobsters and Crabs of Europe will enable the reader to identify 42 crustacean species of commercial importance found in these regions during coastal explorations, fishing trips, displayed in public aquaria or available in restaurants, including selected freshwater crayfishes, deep-sea species and some imported species. The book also includes sections on the gross internal and external structure of these Crustacea, their life histories, classification and nomenclature. The book is of interest to students of marine biology and researchers in fisheries science.