Manatees are among nature's strangest-looking, gentlest animals. They're among America's most endangered mammals and were the basis for ancient tales of mermaids, legendary creatures that were half-fish and half-human.

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.

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 October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury, boasting waves over one hundred feet high. Among its victims was the Gloucester, Massachusetts-based swordfishing boat the Andrea Gail, which vanished with all six crew members aboard. "Drifting down on swimmers is standard rescue procedure, but the seas are so violent that Buschor keeps getting flung out of reach. There are times when he's thirty feet higher than the men trying to rescue him. . . . [I]f the boat's not going to Buschor, Buschor's going to have to go to it. SWIM! they scream over the rail. SWIM! Buschor rips off his gloves and hood and starts swimming for his life." It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." When it struck in October 1991, there was virtually no warning. "She's comin' on, boys, and she's comin' on strong," radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail off the coast of Nova Scotia, and soon afterward the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace. In a book taut with the fury of the elements, Sebastian Junger takes us deep into the heart of the storm, depicting with vivid detail the courage, terror, and awe that surface in such a gale. Junger illuminates a world of swordfishermen consumed by the dangerous but lucrative trade of offshore fishing, "a young man's game, a single man's game," and gives us a glimpse of their lives in the tough fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts; he recreates the last moments of the Andrea Gail crew and recounts the daring high-seas rescues that made heroes of some and victims of others; and he weaves together the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched, to produce a rich and informed narrative. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that will leave readers with the taste of salt air on their tongues and a sense of terror of the deep.

Fly fishing is complex and costly with too much cumbersome gear, right? Well, tenkara's different. Long overlooked in the West, tenkara is economical and simple, productive, and pleasurable This Eastern approach is today taking the fly-fishing world in North America and Europe by storm. Its tool kit is simple: a long, collapsible rod; a length of line tied to the end of the rod; and a fly. Without a reel, casting techniques become easy and intuitive. The gear is inexpensive and easily portable, perfect for hiking and camping. This pioneering book is an ideal guide to tenkara, covering the essentials of gear and rigging, the roots of tenkara, fishing dry flies as well as subsurface fishing and casting--as well as tenkara backpacking and tenkara for women. Tenkara has been the subject of features in Field & Stream, American Angler, and Fly, Rod & Reel magazines, and has been endorsed by the likes of Patagonia CEO and environmentalist Yvon Chouinard. Major retail outlets are now selling tenkara rods.

'An ode to the ocean, and the generations of women drawn to the waves or left waiting on the shore' Guardian In Salt On Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie explores what the sea means to us, and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages. In mesmerising prose, she explores how the sea has inspired, fascinated and terrified us, and how she herself fell in love with the deep blue. This book is a walk on the beach with Turner, with Shakespeare, with the Romantic Poets and shanty-singers. It's an ode to our oceans - to the sailors who brave their treacherous waters, to the women who lost their loved ones to the waves, to the creatures that dwell in their depths, to beachcombers, swimmers, seabirds and mermaids. Navigating through ancient Greek myths, poetry, shipwrecks and Scottish folktales, Salt On Your Tongue is about how the wild untameable waves can help us understand what it means to be human.

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.

The most comprehensive book about Florida's marine fishes ever produced, Marine Fishes of Florida includes hundreds of photographs and descriptions of species you'll encounter-plus many that are rare-when diving, snorkeling, kayaking, or fishing. Coverage includes both the Atlantic and Gulf coastline, from habitats near the shore to deeper waters. Fishes found in coastal rivers and other brackish waters are fully represented, as are offshore species that venture into Florida's waters often enough to be called "occasional visitors." David B. Snyder and George H. Burgess intertwine personal observations with results from research studies to provide accurate-often surprising-details. The result is a set of beautifully succinct identification descriptions coupled with information about each species' natural history. From the largest sharks to the smallest cryptic gobies, from homely toadfishes to the spectacularly colored reef fishes, this book is certain to help you better understand the fish you've seen or hooked. Features of Marine Fishes of Florida include * Color photographs by leading marine photographers* Differentiation of adult and juvenile forms* Coverage of 133 fish families and hundreds of species* Size and geographical range data* Natural history and conservation notes* Explanations of geologic history and current habitats

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.

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.

'A rewarding glimpse of another world' THE GUARDIAN Seashells are the sculpted homes of a remarkable group of animals: the molluscs. These are some of the most ancient and successful animals on the planet, and they have fascinating tales to tell. Spirals in Time charts the course of shells through history, from the first jewelry and the oldest currencies through to their use as potent symbols of sex and death, prestige and war, not to mention a nutritious (and tasty) source of food. In this book, Helen Scales leads us on a journey into the realm of these undersea marvels. She goes in search of everything from snails that 'fly' underwater to octopuses accused of stealing shells and giant mussels with golden beards. Shells are also bellwethers of our impact on the natural world. The effects of overfishing and pollution are, of course, serious concerns, but perhaps more worrying is ocean acidification, which causes shells to simply melt away. Spirals in Time urges you to ponder how seashells can reconnect us with nature, and heal the rift between ourselves and the living world. One of the books of the year - Nature, Guardian, The Economist, The Times

Pete the green sea turtle begins his morning floating in the endless, blue ocean. But this day in the warm, life-giving heat of the Florida sun will end in crippling tragedy. A passing boat strikes Pete, and his days of swimming free in the open ocean now appear to be over forever. How will Pete survive the life-threatening injuries he has sustained?

"A Home for Nickel" is the true story of a lovable green sea turtle's struggle for survival and the people who make it happen. After Pete is rescued from impending death, his story stretches across the continent from the Florida Keys to Hawaii, Canada, and Chicago, Illinois. Throughout Pete's journey, Jim Gamlin shares fascinating tidbits about turtles and the people who love them. This rich text is a moving tribute to those who care for nature, and how nature cares for them in return.

Join Pete as he begins his life buried under the sand, rushes to the ocean, and launches into his incredible journey. The chain of events that happen next are serendipitous and miraculous. Get ready to be inspired by this amazing shelled survivor.

This book describes the basic elements in the theory of animal breeding and inheritance of quantitative economic traits and the way in which this technology can be implemented in selective breeding programs for aquaculture species. The role and the implementation of molecular genetics in modern selective breeding programs is also addressed. The booka (TM)s main objective is to stimulate development of efficient selective breeding programs in aquaculture, the worlda (TM)s fastest growing industry for animal protein production.

Considerable genetic gain from selection has been demonstrated for several aquatic species in traits like growth rate and survival. AKVAFORSK and allied institutions have demonstrated the value of selection in Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, Nile tilapia, rohu carp and the shrimp Penaeus vannamei. Presently, however, less than 10 % of total world aquaculture production is based on genetically improved animals. The urgent challenge to the industry is to implement and start selective breeding programs in order to make the aquaculture industry more competitive and sustainable, through improving the utilization of feed, land and water resources.

The text has been written by scientists at AKVAFORSK, Akvaforsk Genetics Center and co-workers in order to summarise present knowledge in the field, and to encourage implementation of selective breeding programs for economically important fish and shellfish species around the world.

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.

Make identifying freshwater fish easy and enjoyable. This field guide by Dave Bosanko features detailed information about 87 types of Georgia fish, and the book's waterproof pages make it perfect for the dock or boat. Identify your catches with the intricately detailed fish illustrations, and verify them using the -Similar Species- comparison features. Then read fascinating facts on spawning behavior, feeding habits and more. Plus, match up your best catches against the state and North American records. With inside information for locating fishing hotspots, this book is essential for every tackle box, beach bag, RV and cabin.