Customer Reviews

The Coral Reef: White Star Guides Underwater World

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Nowadays many divers are producing dive guides to their favourite destinations. Some are really good and reflect the author's life-long knowledge of the area. Sadly, far too many are poorly written and should not have been published. Technical, reference books, however, are not for those who lack the requisite qualifications which must be coupled with expertise. Who knows what misinformation may be imparted - simply because the author did not posses a complete understanding of the subject.

This is another book from White Star Publishing of Italy. It is not, however, another diving guide. A quick glance at the contents reveals how this book seeks to explain the Coral Reef - from 500 million years ago to the present day, it's geography, biology and, of course, those all-important living creatures.

That is a pretty tall order. It is, therefore, only fair that we should examine the qualifications of the author in order in order to determine the credibility of the content. I was, therefore, expecting to find a short biography explaining when and where the author obtained his PhD or other equally impressive qualifications. Sadly there is no such information - not even a pen-picture or résumé about the person responsible for writing this technical tome. In fact, apart from the two instances (book cover and page 3) where Angelo Mojetta is credited with writing the text, he receives no further mention whatsoever. Nor is he credited with having taken any of the many excellent photographs - which also include images from NASA and Oxford Scientific Films.

In short, the reader is left with no idea whether this book is the work of someone who is an eminent expert in his field or an enthusiastic amateur - and that leaves a very large question mark over the entire content. Sadly, and equally unforgivable, the publishers have also omitted a bibliography. After all, the author was certainly not around 500 million years ago - so he must have obtained his information from somewhere.

All that said, this is a well-presented and highly technical book covering the evolution of Barrier Reefs and the way they are today. We just can't be certain the information is correct. The book is supported with plenty of maps, graphs and diagrams which are generally used to good effect. The final 45 pages are devoted to artistic impressions of various fishes, invertebrates and corals. Unfortunately, however, these are flawed - both in presentation and content. Having compared the fishes drawn and described in this book with those from other titles from this same publisher, I found the same pictures are used in those other titles - where the same fish are given different names!

My final comment is reserved for this publisher's somewhat original brand of "Italian-English" for which they are renowned. Because phrases are expressed differently from language to language, any "word by word" literal translation often looks very silly. This book opens with the following two sentences which speak for themselves and come complete with spelling mistakes (marked with "(sic)" each time) and lack of punctuation:

"In an ideal catalogue of the natural wonders on earth a prominent position must be reserved alongside the rain forests (sic), the Africa savanna (sic) and the ices of Antarctica for coral reefs. Warm crystal-clear waters inviting exploration, exuberant life manifesting itself in a myriad of forms and colours - these are the principal (sic) features of the extraordinary habitats peculiar to the tropical regions of our planet, incomparable aquatic environments in equilibrium between the sea and the land and prey to the forces of both."

If you would like to read more of the same - then this is the book for you. Personally, I think it a pity that such excellent photography is wasted on what is easily the hardest book I have ever tried to read and understand.

NM