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Summary: Recent Review
Review: From The Baton Rouge Advocate, July 18, 1999 "Overall, this is a wonderful reference book packed with interesting facts and beautiful to look at as well."
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Summary: Recent Review:
Review: From The Islander, June 10, 1999: "A colorful and illuminating presentation of the latest research and findings on these extraordinary creatures. . . . Let's hope that the publication of this fine book will help more people to respect these genuine treasures of the sea."
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Summary: My second bible!
Review: I am a whale expert, but I wouldn't be were it not for this book. My copy is less than a year old, but it is already terribly battered because I read it so much. I can name almost every cetacean in it, and because of it, I have decided on my desired proffession-- A Cetaceanologist, or person that studies whales, dolphins, and porpoises. I feel this book is a must for whale lovers, and I hope that some day I can own more Eyewitness Handbooks. I love this book!
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Summary: My second bible!
Review: I am a whale expert, but I wouldn't be were it not for this book. My copy is less than a year old, but it is already terribly battered because I read it so much. I can name almost every cetacean in it, and because of it, I have decided on my desired proffession-- A Cetaceanologist, or person that studies whales, dolphins, and porpoises. I feel this book is a must for whale lovers, and I hope that some day I can own more Eyewitness Handbooks. I love this book!
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Summary: This book is GREAT!
Review: I am truly amazed at this book! I have learned so many things about my favorite things on the planet: CETACEANS! I recommend this book to anyone who loves cetaceans.
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Summary: Best Field Guide for Cetaceans I Have Seen
Review: I lead about a dozen pelagic (offshore) birding boat trips each year off the east coast of the U.S. In the process, I became very interested in identifying the whales and dolphins we were seeing. As a result, I needed to find a decent field guide.This book is the best field guide to cetaceans that I've seen yet. It does an excellent job of presenting known identification criteria as well as pitfalls. The pictures, measurements, and dive sequences provide a quick reference. The more in-depth text provides the further details needed to confirm an ID or sometimes to explain why your view of a specific animal keeps you from making a positive ID. This is the one cetacean field guide I recommend to trip participants.
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Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: I personally am in love with all marine mammals, so I have many books on the subject. This is a great one. It provides small but effective overview of each of the known species. Its a great book, i highly recommend it!
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Summary: If you like whales, you'll like this book
Review: If you want detailed information on whales, dolphins and porpoises layed out in a consistant, logical way with beautifully drawn, color images, this is the book for you. Some of the detailed information includes maps of where the animals typically range, a profile of their dive sequences for whale watchers and a comparison profile against a 6ft tall man. This is for each and every animal in the book and only part of the information included. This is a real gift to whale lovers and whale watchers everywhere. I can't really see anyone being dissapointed in a purchase of this book.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: If you want to know anything about whales, dolphins or even porpoises get this book. It has all the information from an ID Checklist (to ID the animals in the wild) to information about it's diet. YOu can find anything in this book. Great for anyone!
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Summary: useful but not perfect
Review: My main objections to this field guide were the illustrations. Artistic renderings are often beautiful, but fail to portray the animal in question with accuracy. Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius)is a case in point. Although I have not observed this animal at sea myself, I spoke with a number of fellow fishery biologists who have spent time at sea as marine mammal observers and no one has ever observed a bright yellow Ziphius in the field. All observed a base color of grey with this genus, at least in the northeastern Pacific. The Tasmacetus rendering is most likely based on the J. Mammalogy (1976) paper by Watkins wherein an unidentified ziphiid whale (probable Tasmacetus) was observed from a bluff overlooking the sea in New Zealand. Useful plates were those showing all similar cetaceans together; eg. all oceanic dolphins without prominent beaks, all oceanic dolphins WITH prominent beaks etc. The ziphidae plates show male Mesoplodon characteristics, but that is to be expected since solitary female ziphiid whales, especially Mesoplodon sp., could be virtually impossible to identify. My own field guide preferences use photographs rather than artistic renderings. Other problems: The distribution maps to not reflect the full distribution (extralimital observations/strandings) of many species. An example: Psuedorca is shown as a species with a distribution much further south than observations/stranding records indicate. The text does suggest that 'numerous records' exist outside of the more tropical distribution shown in the map. Note also that many of the dolphin renderings are positioned so that the dorsal fin is right where the pages meet. We did get a chuckle over the photograph showing what you should wear when watching whales, but that can be explained by our 'silly scientist' bias. One note for potential whale-watchers: do not allow your binocular strap to lie right on the skin of your neck while at sea as you can wear painful wounds into your neck through a day of whale-watching. Make sure your shirt collar or other clothing lies under that silly strap! Voice of experience!
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