Welcome to the Sunshine Island - where the beaches are golden, the lifestyle is perfect and anything is possible. Piper Le Brocq is happily single after the disastrous ending of her engagement eighteen months before. The only man in her life is Jax, her best friend and cousin, who spends his life teaching locals how to forage and taking tourists on boat trips around the island. Her days are filled with helping out at her mother's guest house and selling her glass mosaics at The Cabbage Patch emporium in Trinity. Piper loves living on the Sunshine Island, where the neighbours look out for each other and visitors are welcome. So, when handsome guest Alex Cooper arrives at the guest house to check up on his grandfather, she welcomes him to the sunny island. And when he needs help after his grandfather is injured, she's quick to get involved. Yet, the more she gets to know Alex the more mysterious he seems, and Alex isn't the only one keeping secrets from her. What readers are saying about Georgina Troy: 'A gorgeous beachside setting, divine ice-cream sundaes, and a scorching summer love story - this book has it all!' Christina Jones 'I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this charming, evocative story. It's a perfect book to enjoy by the pool, in the sunshine, with a glass of Prosecco!' Kirsty Greenwood 'A wonderfully warm and sweet summer read' Karen Clarke

This friendly, practical guide includes everything you need to know to pick up a spade, put in a pond and help wildlife flourish right outside your back door. Ponds are vital oases for nature. They are nursery grounds, feeding stops and bathing spots. They are genetic superhighways and vibrant ecosystems each brimming with life, interactions and potential. And they are for everyone. In The Wildlife Pond Book, Jules Howard offers a fresh perspective on ponds and encourages gardeners to reach for a garden spade and do something positive to benefit our shared neighbourhood nature. As well as offering practical tips and advice on designing, planting up and maintaining your pond, Jules encourages readers to explore the wildlife that colonises it with a torch, a microscope or a good old-fashioned pond-dipping net. With a foreword by award-winning wildlife-gardening author, Kate Bradbury, this helpful new guide includes a section outlining the hundreds of organisms that may turn up in your pond and is packed with creative ideas that have been tried and tested by author Jules Howard, an avid pond-builder, prolific pond-dipper and passionate voice for freshwater conservation for more than fifteen years. So, no matter how big your outdoor space is, The Wildlife Pond Book is the guide you need to create your very own haven for nature.

From time immemorial people have been drawn to the beach to collect practical resources as well as mysterious objects that have fuelled myth and folklore - it is our inherent hunter-gatherer instinct. Whether you are a seasoned beachcomber, a casual visitor or an enthusiastic naturalist this book will satisfy your curiosity about the treasures found cast up on the beach strandline, be it a pretty seashell, a spent eggcase, a seaweed frond or an exotic ocean voyager. Every find has a story to tell and we aim to answer the questions that arise from each beachcombing discovery - what is it and where has it come from? Clear photographs and descriptions are accompanied by information about the natural history of the animals and plants you encounter. Even man-made debris can offer a fascinating introduction to the workings of the ocean and illustrate how items discarded in Africa or America can wash ashore on a British beach.The beach strandline is often overlooked as a wildlife habitat but is home to a unique community of flora and fauna, many found nowhere else. It is understudied and under threat, facing a variety of man-made problems. In this book you will find a comprehensive account of the animals and plants that make up this rich and ever-changing oasis of life in the otherwise harsh environment of the beach. The more we understand the delicate nature of the strandline the more we can do to nurture and protect it.But beware - beachcombing can be an addictive pleasure! Make sure you pack this book every time you visit the beach - there is always something new to discover, whether on a nocturnal strandline safari, making seaweed whistles or hunting minibeasts with pots and pooters. Emmerse yourself in the beachcombing experience; the wind in your face, the smell of salt spray, the roar of the ocean; it's an assault on the senses, the perfect tonic - and this book is your essential guide.

From beer labels to literary classics like A River Runs Through It, trout fishing is a beloved feature of the iconography of the American West. But as Jen Brown demonstrates in Trout Culture: How Fly Fishing Forever Changed the Rocky Mountain West, the popular conception of Rocky Mountain trout fishing as a quintessential experience of communion with nature belies the sport's long history of environmental manipulation, engineering, and, ultimately, transformation. A fly-fishing enthusiast herself, Brown places the rise of recreational trout fishing in a local and global context. Globally, she shows how the European sport of fly-fishing came to be a defining, tourist-attracting feature of the expanding 19th-century American West. Locally, she traces the way that the burgeoning fly-fishing tourist industry shaped the environmental, economic, and social development of the Western United States: introducing and stocking favored fish species, eradicating the less favored native "trash fish," changing the courses of waterways, and leading to conflicts with Native Americans' fishing and territorial rights. Through this analysis, Brown demonstrates that the majestic trout streams often considered a timeless feature of the American West are in fact the product of countless human interventions adding up to a profound manipulation of the Rocky Mountain environment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKMwEkKj9jg

When it comes to fly fishing, simpler is better. Modern-day fly fishing, like much in life, has become exceedingly complex, with high-tech gear, a confusing array of flies and terminal tackle, accompanied by high-priced fishing guides. This book reveals that the best way to catch trout is simply, with a rod and a fly and not much else. The wisdom in this book comes from a simpler time, when the premise was: the more you know, the less you need. It teaches the reader how to discover where the fish are, at what depth, and what they are feeding on. Then it describes the techniques needed to present a fly at that depth, make it look lifelike, and hook the fish. With chapters on wet flies, nymphs, and dry flies, its authors employ both the tenkara rod as well as regular fly fishing gear to cover all the bases. Illustrated by renowned fish artist James Prosek, with inspiring photographs and stories throughout, Simple Fly Fishing reveals the secrets and the soul of this captivating sport. Winner, Guidebooks, Banff Mountain Book Competition 2014

Since "Jaws" scared a nation of moviegoers out of the water three decades ago, great white sharks have attained a mythical status as the most frightening and mysterious monsters to still live among us. Each fall, just twenty-seven miles off the San Francisco coast, in the waters surrounding a desolate rocky island chain, the world's largest congregation of these fearsome predators gathers to feed. Journalist Susan Casey first saw the great whites of the Farallones in a television documentary. Within months, she was sitting with the program's two scientists in a small motorboat as the sharks - some as long as twenty feet, as wide as a semitrailer - circled around them. From this first encounter, Casey became obsessed with these awe-inspiring creatures, and a plan was hatched for her to join the scientists and follow their research. "The Devil's Teeth" is the riveting account of that one fateful shark season. An exhilarating adventure story, "The Devil's Teeth" offers a glimpse into a violent, uncivilized world ruled by nature's most powerful and mysterious predators, a world where man is neither wanted nor needed.

The definitive resource on tunas and billfishes from the world's top authorities. Tunas and billfishes are peak predators of the oceans. Admired by scientists and naturalists for their speed, grace, unique physiology, and diversity, they are important both ecologically and socioeconomically. Vital sources of food and income for many maritime nations, whose fleets of vessels target them with huge purse seines or miles-long lines, these exhilarating fishes are also highly desired and avidly sought by big game fishers across the globe. In Tunas and Billfishes of the World, Bruce Collette, a leading marine ichthyologist and conservationist, and John Graves, an expert on the biology, fisheries, and management of tunas and billfishes, focus on three families of fishes: Scombridae, the mackerels and tunas; Istiophoridae, sailfish and marlins; and Xiphiidae, the Swordfish. Over the course of 61 in-depth species accounts, Collette and Graves * describe what each species looks like and where it lives * include detailed summaries of the fishes' biology-size, food, habitat, reproduction, and early life history * offer current information about fisheries interests and conservation status * provide up-to-date evaluations of the threat status for each species Accompanied by full-color, scientifically accurate illustrations by renowned illustrator Val Kells, along with range maps for each species, this spectacular volume is the essential book on these majestic inhabitants of the sea. Destined to quickly become the standard reference for scientists, students, and naturalists, Tunas and Billfishes of the World will also be prized by all fishers who pursue these species.

When people hear the word “migration,” they think of animals that move from a feeding area to a breeding area and back each year. But the greatest migration on Earth happens twice every night. The movement is largely vertical and performed by plankton followed by predatory fish, squid, octopus and other species that have acquired a taste for plankton. The migration starts deep in the waters of the ocean at sunset. As they move, the plankton nibble on plant plankton and other tasty morsels in the water and, eventually, some on each other. The feeding ends just before dawn when the plankton retreat to the depths of the ocean to hide during the day until the next evening, when they migrate back up the water column. In Planktonia, Erich Hoyt invites readers to dive into the dazzling nighttime ocean. Countless microscopic plankton — larval creatures such as ornate ghost pipefish, left-handed hermit crabs and bony-eared assfish — ascend to the upper waters to feed, returning to the depths before sunrise. These tiny planktonic creatures are delicate and beautiful; some look terrifying; and most look nothing like the creatures they will become as adults. This great vertical migration attracts larger adult creatures, too, from the solitary 6-inch (15 cm) bigfin reef squid and the fierce and hungry 6½ foot (2 m) female blanket octopus, which is up to 40,000 times heavier than her male mate. Everyone comes here for the midnight feast, and they are all ravenously hungry. Chapters in this book include: Hawai’i: From Bluewater to Blackwater; Awesome Anilao; The Gulf Stream Procession of Life; Blackwater White Sea; Precious Life of Plankton; Blackwater Unlimited; From Blackwater Passion to Protection. All life in the ocean depends on plankton. Plankton plays a key role in sequestering carbon against climate change. The great nightly vertical migration highlights the importance of protecting not only ocean species but also ecosystems that embrace ocean processes from the depths of the sea to surface waters.

Filled with beautiful illustrations, "A Speyside Odyssey" details the fascinating life story of the Atlantic Salmon as it undertakes one of the most remarkable, and most deadly, journeys in nature. The story begins with conception in a remote highland burn, and follows the hazardous journey the salmon take through small tributaries, to the River Spey, and from the estuary on to distant oceanic feeding grounds. After gorging for one or more years on the prolific food sources of the North Atlantic, the odyssey draws to its conclusion as, with remarkable accuracy, the salmon complete the long journey home, to spawn in the burn of their origin. The salmon's life-cycle provides a unique background for a natural history of Speyside. As the year unfolds, the changing topography of the landscape and river, the details of bird and animal life, wild flowers and salmon fishing lore are brought to life in words and beautiful watercolour illustrations. "A Speyside Odyssey" is an emotive celebration of natural history in a breathtaking and captivatingly beautiful area of north-east Scotland.

The fresh waters of the British Isles are diverse, ranging from torrential hill streams to powerful rivers and wide, meandering lowland channels. Canals and drainage channels, ranging in size from ditches to the large Fenland drains of eastern England also hold fish, as do reservoirs, lakes, ponds and other still water bodies. The fish themselves are correspondingly varied. This pocket-sized book provides information about the 54 native, invasive and naturalised species found in the UK today, and includes a photograph of each to allow easy identification

From shark attack survivor to the shark's biggest advocate, Paul de Gelder tells us just why these majestic diverse animals need our help as much as we need them. Something happens to you the first time you dive with sharks... We have a perennial fascination with sharks. Portrayed in the media and popular culture as killing machines, we are awed by their power and strength. But the shark is so much more - a marvel of the sea, they have evolved over 450 million years into over 500 species, from the bioluminescent kitefin to the tiny dwarf lantern shark, the sociable lemon shark to the blue shark, which can birth up to 100 pups in one litter. Bringing balance to the ocean's ecosystem, our planet is at serious risk when these amazing creatures are threatened. Paul de Gelder, who lost two limbs in a shark attack during a mission as an elite Australian navy clearance diver, spent time as part of his recovery learning all about sharks. He became so obsessed that, despite what happened to him, he is now an expert and has dedicated his life to helping save them. Shark is his love-letter to these unfairly vilified animals, and his warning to the world about what will happen if we don't look out for them.

This book celebrates oceans, coasts and shorelines the world over. Bringing together incredible stories and legends of the sea, delicious recipes and activities inspired by the coast, and fascinating trivia on everything from marine exploration to the turning tides, it will captivate anyone who is enthralled by the wonder of the sea.