During the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, California's coast seemed awash in abalone. From San Diego to Crescent City, people feasted on abalone steaks and glimmering shells were sold in trinket shops. Abalones' remarkable abundance and appeal made them icons of California's easy-living, laid-back beach culture. But just a few decades later, many younger Californians had never seen the legendary mollusk. In the past twenty years, two of California's seven abalone species have joined the U.S. Endangered Species list, and even the hardiest now faces the ecological collapse of its home habitat in Northern California - long regarded as a sure stronghold. After more than 70 million years of gripping tenaciously to North America's western shoreline, how - in our time - did the fate of the delicious, wondrous, and once abundant abalone become so precarious?

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

Part One, the inaugural volume in the Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, describes lancelets, hagfishes, lampreys, and sharks. Specialist authorships of its sections include detailed species descriptions with keys, life history and general habits, abundance, range, and relation to human activity, such as economic and sporting importance. The text is written for an audience of amateur and professional ichthyologists, sportsmen, and fishermen, based on new revisions, original research, and critical reviews of existing information. Species are illustrated by exceptional black and white line drawings, accompanied by distribution maps and tables of meristic data. Distributed for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Misterios dos monstros do rio profundos, algumas pessoas vivem em casas flutuantes, todos os dias em movimento.Este grande e profundo rio nao desiste de seus segredos facilmente.Nas aguas escuras e turvas, ha perigos ocultos, tais como o jacare, a sucuri e pir

The story of a brutal shark attack that cost a woman her arm and much of her leg, and her death-defying recovery. One of the most dreadful experiences humans fear is a shark attack. This horrifying agony is exactly what happened to Nicole Moore, a nurse from Orangeville, Ontario. It was an assault all the more brutal for being so unlikely — she was standing in waist-deep water at a Mexican resort. She came very close to dying, losing 60 percent of her blood from deep bites on her arm and leg, and was rushed to a hospital where she received a questionable level of medical care that left her and her family confronting physical and mental anguish. Surviving gruesome misery, including the amputation of her left arm and attempts to rebuild her disfigured leg, she has fought on to become a source of inspiration for those facing seemingly insurmountable challenges.

As Four Thousand Hooks opens, an Alaskan fishing schooner is sinking. It is the summer of 1972, and the sixteen-year-old narrator is at the helm. Backtracking from the gripping prologue, Dean Adams describes how he came to be a crew member on the Grant and weaves a tale of adventure that reads like a novel--with drama, conflict, and resonant portrayals of halibut fishing, his ragtag shipmates, maritime Alaska, and the ambiguities of family life. At sea, the Grant's crew teach Dean the daily tasks of baiting thousands of longline hooks and handling the catch, and on shore they lead him through the seedy bars and guilty pleasures of Kodiak. Exhausted by twenty-hour workdays and awed by the ocean's raw power, he observes examples of human courage and vulnerability and emerges with a deeper knowledge of himself and the world. Four Thousand Hooks is both an absorbing adventure story and a rich ethnography of a way of life and work that has sustained Northwest families for generations. This coming of age story will appeal to readers including young adults and anyone interested in ocean adventures, commercial fishing, maritime life, and the Northwest coast. Visit the author's website: http://www.fourthousandhooks.com/

No single individual did more to promote sea turtle research and conservation than Archie Carr (1909-1987). So entwined did he become with these creatures and the fight against their overexploitation and loss of habitat that the largest wildlife refuge for loggerhead turtles in the world was named in his honor, and World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated internationally on his birthday, June 16. Carr's work with sea turtles began in the 1940s. His many publications written for general readers, including his 1956 classic The Windward Road,alongside numerous articles for National Geographic and other publications, brought widespread attention to the plight of these animals. So Excellent a Fishe, first published in 1967, combined everything the careful researcher had learned in more than two decades of fieldwork. This groundbreaking book answered many then-unresolved questions about sea turtle behavior, including those about their remarkable migrations. In large part because of the endearing charm of Carr's narrative style, it remains a beloved and often-consulted volume in the field. This new edition captures Carr's gentle humor, his passionate fascination with sea turtles, and his intense love of sharing his knowledge with readers. A foreword by Karen Bjorndal, director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, brings the story up to date even as it reveals how prescient Carr was more than 45 years ago.

From the fifty-one-foot whale shark "Rhincodon typus" to a less-than-one-half-inch fish in the minnow family--the tiny "Paedocypris progenetica"--fish certainly carry a lot of weight . . . or do they?

A fish's heft in water may vary, but these diverse aquatic animals certainly carry a lot of weight in our ecosystems and environment. From freshwater to ocean habitats, Judith S. Weis offers a fascinating look at these deceptively simple creatures. Fishes may appear to live a dull existence, but appearances change once we understand more about how they survive. These wonders actually possess attributes that would make us superpowers--they can change color, sex, produce light and electricity, regenerate injured fins, prevent themselves from sinking, and some can even walk on land.

"Do Fish Sleep?" is organized in an easy-to-read and accessible question-and-answer format, filled with more than 55 photographs and over 100 interesting facts from fish biology basics to the importance of preserving and restoring fish diversity and healthy populations. A captivating read for fish enthusiasts of all ages--naturalists, environmentalists, aquarists, scuba divers, and students--this is also the perfect primer for those just about to get their feet wet. Dive in

A New York Times Bestseller. Great white sharks are enigmas. They ruled the oceans long before dinosaurs inhabited the earth, yet we know surprisingly little about them. Scientists speculate they can live for 60 years and grow to a massive 20 feet long. They heal miraculously from severe injuries and can sense a heartbeat from miles away. There is one place on earth where it is possible to study great whites in the wild: a spooky outcrop of jagged rocks off the coast of San Francisco. This godforsaken island is home to a handful of shark-obsessed scientists, ready to endanger their lives just to get close. This is a riveting adventure about great white sharks and the power they have over us.

Combining natural history with beguiling autobiographical and historical narrative, To Sea and Back is a dazzling portrait of a fish whose story is closely intertwined with our own. 'Indispensable and powerful... To Sea and Back mingles history with biography and science... Shelton writes with a poet's ear... A writer to be prized.'-- Tom Adair, Scotsman The Atlantic salmon is an extraordinary and mysterious fish. In To Sea and Back, Richard Shelton combines memoir and deep scientific knowledge to reveal, from the salmon's point of view, both the riverine and marine worlds in which it lives. He explores this iconic fish's journey to reach its feeding grounds in the northern oceans before making the return over thousands of miles to the burns of its birth to reproduce. Along the way, Shelton describes the feats of exploration that gave us our first real understanding of the oceans, and shows how this iconic fish is a vital indicator of the health of our rivers and oceans. Above all, To Sea and Back is the story of Richard Shelton's lifelong passion for the sea and his attempt to solve the perennial enigmas of the salmon's secret life.

A search for the endangered beluga whales of Cook Inlet, Alaska, becomes a personal journey and an expose of the forces arrayed against this fascinating--and troubled--species.