Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide

Rating:
Summary: By and large a reliable companion
Review: ...BR>This book is intended to be used to identify marine organisms by comparing photographs with the live specimens seen or photographed while diving or snorkeling. Although a paperback it is quite a strong book and withstands extensive handling quite well without falling apart. It has helped me to identify most of the marine organisms I encountered in the waters around Bali. A zoologist by training I am not only interested in fishes, but also in all kinds of invertebrate organisms, such as soft and hard corals, nudibranchs, tunicates, echinoderms, worms, molluscs, etc. I therefore noted with particularly pleasure that these are very well represented. For instance, when for the first time you see what looks like white strings on corals or rocks you wonder what the heck that could be. The book informs you that these are spaghetti worms! Ever heard of them? In my experience photographs are more suitable than drawings for finding a resemblance between picture and live specimens. And whereas I realize that it is not easy to photograph fishes, especially not the shy species, I wished a few times the pictures to bear a closer resemblance to the real specimens. It would be to the book's advantage if improved photographs were included when a new edition is prepared. At present, however, there is no alternative to this book.

Rating:
Summary: Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide
Review: As a diver and aspiring underwater photographer stationed in Okinawa, Japan, I have found that the pictures I take and want to identify are all in this book. It's great if you want to find out what fish/sponge/slug/anenome you took a picture of. Used my dive buddies for long enough, so I'm getting one of my own. Even though a lot of the names are italian, most fish have the common name. Definatly helpful if you're into underwater pics.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Pictures, Long Names
Review: As an avid diver living abroad in the the vast Indo-Pacific region, I had a lot of interest in this book mainly since I was interested in knowing the English names of the marine life I was seeing. When I received it, I saw that there were nice pictures, but the headings under the pictures were almost all in Latin, with very few common names, unless they were extremely obvious ones. I'm not done picking through this book yet, but unfortunately, I am having a hard time picking the book back up, and trying to match my underwater videos to the pictures.
I-a only-a eak-spa ig-pa atin-la!

Rating:
Summary: relatively exhaustive guide
Review: first of all: this is a gd book. i've been able to identify almost all critters with this book. but tt's as far as i can get.

Apart from photographic identification, there's little information provided abt the individual animals which would be very useful i.e. habitat, size range, colour range, symbiotism with another species etc. also there's a section which lists the animals as "misc" which well isn't entirely the fault of the authors. i'm assuming tt perhaps little info is available abt the relative species and hence they're unable to give it proper classification or the class is small so it's unnecessary to give them their own.

the pictures are all brilliantly taken which allows for easy identification except for some of the fusilers and gobies and other small critters tt are difficult to identify bcos of the angle fr which the pix are taken or that they are taken fr a wide angle i.e. an entire school of fish which can require quite a squint. i thought it wld be useful too if apart from the pix they could, like bird ident books, detail in writing the physical appearance of the fish. bcos fish can have rather different appearances in the various life stages. either that or there are variations to their colours etc. but this cld also be due to a lack of species information. which is why perhaps it wld be gd to buy a range of books so comparisens can me made and also for those who take pictures (and who are interested enough) to feedback the authors. the more info we have the better guide books we can make.

i thought it was nice to include a section on coast/sea birds. alot of time ppl fail to take notice of them. perhaps this section can be improved on to make ppl more aware of avain life ard the sea. marine mammals also needs more work. right now the porpoise ident is a page of grayscale illustrations. i know most of the times they're gray but... it's also not exhaustive which again, cld be supported by reader contributions.

still undecided by my review? just by the book then.

Rating:
Summary: Indo-pac coral reef
Review: I find this book to be very helpful when trying to locate a species of coral, shell, animal etc., It is perfect for traveling. If you need more information than the brief discriptions supplied then you will need to research in other publications.

Rating:
Summary: For Serious Fish-watchers
Review: Over many years, I have looked for a good guide to reef fauna. Last year, I settled for this one and probably won't look further.

This one is very good for identifying everything from sponges to turtles. Each type of creature (usually a phylum or an order) is organized into its own chapter, which begins with a couple of pages of general facts that generally cover reproduction, feeding, and interesting characteristics. Then come the pages of very good color photos of each variation (there are over 20 different clownfishes identified... not bad!) These are labeled with their common name and their Latin name.

But unlike Margaret Gremli's Marine Life in the South China Sea (albeit a less complete and orderly field guide), Allen and Steene's book does not offer any interesting tidbits of information NEXT TO the creature's photo. Each entry is just a name, sometimes with a height in centimeters. In other words, it's great for getting the exact name of the fish you just spotted forty feet down, and your dive log will gain some cred, but you won't immediately find any descriptive text or amusing information about that fish in its entry. Don't get me wrong, this is a great field guide, and it took me 10 years to find this. But some divers may prefer the "hey, did you know...?" format of Gremli's book (ISBN 9 789624 215427, published by APA Publications (H.K.) Ltd).

Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets
Review: This book is as good as it gets. Which does not say much. I took it on a recent dive trip to SE Asia and was able to determine generally what I was seeing. The photos are good. However, there are insufficient descriptions - nothing on habitat and nothing to differentiate juveniles from adults - to ID species. And there were lots of animals underwater that were not listed. But the other available texts were no better.

I searched for months of find a good fish ID book. I concluded there's just nothing out there. So while this is as good as it gets, that's not a lofty endorsement.

Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets
Review: This book is as good as it gets. Which does not say much. I took it on a recent dive trip to SE Asia and was able to determine generally what I was seeing. The photos are good. However, there are insufficient descriptions - nothing on habitat and nothing to differentiate juveniles from adults - to ID species. And there were lots of animals underwater that were not listed. But the other available texts were no better.

I searched for months of find a good fish ID book. I concluded there's just nothing out there. So while this is as good as it gets, that's not a lofty endorsement.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: Very authoritative covering of the animals of the Indo Pacific area. The photos are stunning, and there are a significant number of species listed. This Coral Reef Guide covers: Fishes, crabs, shrimps, invertebrates, coral and other broad subjects. There are scientific names given for use by the marine biologists. For the amateur. Golden Guides would be more useful. Once they progress to this advanced guide, they will seek nothing after it. A very nice home reading book for entertainment or admiration. The species shown are incredible, and compell the reader to explore the ocean. Explore this book first of all.