The Cod. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, MarkKurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives habe been interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. He blends in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. In a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus, he shows how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.

Silver Nautilus Book Award Winner "Best Book About the Environment" by Chicago Review of Books An ode to marine life and the natural world, these essays reveal the elusive lives of whales in the Pacific Ocean-home to orcas, humpbacks, blue, gray, and sperm whales Leigh Calvez has spent a dozen years researching, observing, and probing the lives of the giants of the deep. Here, she relates the stories of nature's most remarkable creatures, including the familial orcas in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia; the migratory humpbacks; the ancient, deep-diving blue whales, the largest animals on the planet. The lives of these whales are conveyed through the work of dedicated researchers who have spent decades tracking them along their secretive routes that extend for thousands of miles, gleaning their habits and sounds and distinguishing peculiarities. Calvez author invites the reader onto a small research catamaran maneuvering among 100-foot long blue whales off the coast of California; or to join the task of monitoring patterns of humpback whale movements at the ocean surface: tail throw, flipper slap, fluke up, or blow. To experience whales is breathtaking. To understand their lives deepens our connection with the natural world.

Upon the 100th anniversary of the most terrifying stretch of shark attacks in American history--a wave said to have been the inspiration for Jaws--comes a reissue of the classic account and investigation. In July 1916, a time when World War I loomed over America and New York City was in the midst of a deadly polio epidemic, the tri-state area sought relief at the Jersey shore. The Atlantic’s refreshing waters proved to be utterly inhospitable, however. In just twelve days, four swimmers were violently and fatally mauled in separate shark attacks, and a fifth swimmer escaped an attack within inches of his life. In this thoroughly researched account, Dr. Richard Fernicola, the leading expert on the attacks, presents a riveting portrait, investigation, and scientific analysis of the terrifying days against the colorful backdrop of America in 1916 in Twelve Days of Terror.

Rays are among the largest fishes in the sea and have colonized all oceans. The first cousins of sharks, rays evolved from early Mesozoic or late Paleozoic shark-like ancestors. They also share with sharks many life history traits-all are carnivores or scavengers-and a multitude of morphological and anatomical characters, such as their skeletons built of cartilage. There are six families and 633 valid named species of rays, but additional undescribed species exist for many groups. Our knowledge of many of the ray species is based on only a small number of individuals, and few of them have been researched well enough to gain even a basic understanding of their biology and life history. The insights gained from molecular analyses of more than three-quarters of living ray species, combined with reinvigorated morphological investigations, have led to many changes in both ray classification and the underpinning species diversity. The recognition of whole new families and genera of rays, and many newly described species, have resulted from this research. In the last century, growth in the trade of rays for food, fins, leather, and curios has fueled increasing prices and demand for them in many countries. This has driven significant increases in ray take by commercial fisheries globally, particularly in the tropical Indo-Pacific. The largely unconstrained growth in ray catch, low productivity of most ray species, and general lack of management of their fisheries has lead to growing concern over the sustainability of stocks throughout the world. Rays of the World is the first complete pictorial atlas of the world's ray fauna and features paintings of more than six hundred species by the fish artist Lindsay Marshall. This comprehensive overview documents the world's ray fauna and promotes wider public interest in the group. It also provides general identifying features and distributional information about this iconic, but surprisingly poorly known, group of fishes. A valuable collection of paintings of all living rays (as well as sharks) has been compiled as part of a multinational research initiative (Chondrichthyan Tree of Life Project) to gain a better understanding of the diversity and evolution of this group. Images sourced from around the planet have been used by the artist to illustrate all of the rays found in oceans and some tropical freshwaters of the world.

Der vorliegende Band der Reihe a žSA1/4Awasserfauna von Mitteleuropa" umfasst in seinem Inhalt erstmals die gesamte WestpalAarktis (Europa, Nordafrika, Vorderasien). Er enthAlt zusammenfassende Angaben A1/4ber die Morphologie, Biologie, A-kologie und Verbreitung der Scirtidae (SumpfkAfer). ZusAtzlich zur Charakterisierung der Familie werden die einzelnen Gattungen, Artengruppen (nicht bei allen Gattungen vorhanden) und Arten ausfA1/4hrlich dargestellt.

Reich illustrierte Bestimmungstabellen fA1/4hren zu den einzelnen Taxa. Viele Merkmale sind abgebildet und gemessen (A1/4ber 1000 Einzelabbildungen, meist Fotos von MikroprAparaten, einige REM-Bilder, 8 Farbtafeln). Das fA1/4hrt dann zu einer sicheren Determination, wodurch Akologische und tiergeografische Aussagen ermAglicht werden.

FA1/4r Limnologen, aber auch Entomologen, Biogeografen und Zoologen, die sich mit der SA1/4Awasserfauna befassen, ist dieses Werk unverzichtbar.

With over 7,000 known species, frogs display a stunning array of forms and behaviors. A single gram of the toxin produced by the skin of the Golden Poison Frog can kill 100,000 people. Male Darwin's Frogs carry their tadpoles in their vocal sacs for sixty days before coughing them out into the world. The Wood Frogs of North America freeze every winter, reanimating in the spring from the glucose and urea that prevent cell collapse. The Book of Frogs commemorates the diversity and magnificence of all of these creatures, and many more. Six hundred of nature's most fascinating frog species are displayed, with each entry including a distribution map, sketches of the frogs, species identification, natural history, and conservation status. Life-size color photos show the frogs at their actual size--including the colossal seven-pound Goliath Frog. Accessibly written by expert Tim Halliday and containing the most up-to-date information, The Book of Frogs will captivate both veteran researchers and amateur herpetologists. As frogs increasingly make headlines for their troubling worldwide decline, the importance of these fascinating creatures to their ecosystems remains underappreciated. The Book of Frogs brings readers face to face with six hundred astonishingly unique and irreplaceable species that display a diverse array of adaptations to habitats that are under threat of destruction throughout the world.