Description:
The Inside Passage is alive and well and teeming with all manner of dolphins, whales, seals, and otter; loons, grebes, coots, and hawks; plus a scintillating variety of fishes, invertebrates, and seaweed. This 1,000-mile-long glacier-carved waterway stretches from Puget Sound in the south to the fjords of Juneau in Alaska, past strings of islands and coastal terrain that ranges from rocky beaches and tide pools to marshes and rainforests. The abundance of wildlife is magnificent, an unending joyous sensory experience of sight, sound, smell, and touch, there for the delectation of every kayaker, tide-pooler, birder, hiker, whale watcher, and casual passerby. The enjoyment can be increased, however, with Marine Wildlife from Puget Sound Through the Inside Passage. Without such a worthy guide, all you know is that you saw a bunch of birds, and you think some of them were ducks. You see birds in greater detail, however, when you're checking for the orange throat patch that distinguishes the double-crested cormorant from the pelagic or Brant's cormorant. And as it goes for birds, so goes it for seals and sea lions, bread crumb sponges and boring sponges, and a vast array of fishes, from soles and sculpins to greenlings and poachers. The black-and-white illustrations and short but precise descriptions provided by Steve Yates are helpful in distinguishing anemones (brooding, green, plumed, and elegant), jellyfishes (lion's mane and moon jelly), flatworms and lugworms, spaghetti worms and tube worms, plus limpets, periwinkles, nudibranches, and all manner of clams, mussels, oysters, and so on. The more you seek, the more you see, and the more you really see, the more beautiful and meaningful the whole experience becomes. --Stephanie Gold
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