A Diver's Guide to Reef Life [Hardcover]

Andrea Ferrari (Author, Editor), Antonella Ferrari (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

This colorful photographic field guide describes about 1,200 species of common invertebrates, fishes, reptiles and mammals that occur on and around the world's coral reefs and mangroves. 6-1/2" x 7", 478 pages, 1,300 color photos.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A stunning tropical marine life reference guide which is bursting at the seams with outstanding photographs". -- Jane Morgan, DIVE Magazine, December 2006

"As essential as your passport on every dive trip from the Red Sea to the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific". -- Claudia Pellarini, SUBMERGE Magazine, October 2006

"No marine guide in the world will excite you with this much color and fascinate you with this much information". -- Willy Volk, Wetpixel.com. October 2006

"This work is truly a must for all that are interested in the underwater creatures that inhabit our tropical waters". -- Bob Goemans, Saltcorner.com, October 2006

A truly comprehensive work, probably the only reef guide most divers will need to take with them on a trip. -- Tim Ecott, author of "Neutral Buoyancy", December 2006

About the Author

World-famous marine photographers and nature writers, Andrea and Antonella Ferrari have published many photographic books and magazine articles on travel and marine life. Their books have been published in Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Great Britain, the USA, Malaysia and Japan. The Ferraris currently make their home in Calendasco,Italy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 478 pages
• Publisher: Nautilus Publishing; 1st edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9832731011
• ISBN-13: 978-9832731016
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Scuba
  • #69 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Marine Life

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Diver's Guide to Reef Life is awesome!, January 15, 2007

By 

G. W. Volk "Willy Volk" (Lake Worth, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Diver's Guide to Reef Life (Hardcover)

A Diver's Guide to Reef Life is an amazing reference guide detailing 1200 tropical species from the Caribbean to the Indo-Pacific. With over 1300 eye-popping photos, the book covers everything from corals to mammals, from reptiles to bony fish. More than just a photo album with lots of pretty pictures, the Ferraris write with as much authority on the skeletal components of coral polyps, for example, as they do on a shark's countershading. If you can rip yourself away from the crazy kaleidoscope of images, you'll find the engaging text to thoroughly yet concisely explain how cnidoblasts inject their nematocysts; what influences a coral colony's structure; and how calcareous spicules support soft corals. Don't worry if you don't know all the jargon before you crack the spine of this fabulous book. The Ferraris explain everything, and after spending a few minutes with A Diver's Guide, you'll understand plenty.

After a brief introduction that explains what a coral reef is and how you can protect it, the book sinks its teeth into Chondorichthyes -- cartilagionous fishes that include sharks and rays. Throughout the book, each creature profiled gets a snapshot and a detailed description that includes distribution, size, habitat, and "life habits." Thoughtfully, the Ferraris also provide underwater photo tips specific to many of the families, so you can come home with photos as brilliant as those in the book. After cartilagionous fishes, the Ferraris detail bony fishes, crustaceans, cephalopods, reptiles, and mammals. They even cover the "topside reef" and discuss some of the animals lurking along the sandy shoreline outside your dive lodge.

The Ferraris decided to throw in some bonus sections, as well. One of the sections, "Zoom," spotlights a general group of animals, or a certain technique that groups of animals have adopted (think: camouflage or schooling). Other sections, like the "Galleries," are fan-tabulous photo essays featuring, for example, hard corals, sponges, sea squirts, sea shells, flatworms, nudibranchs, and the super-intriguing "Strange Reef Creatures." These Galleries strip away the textual descriptions of the animals and provide luscious eye-candy showcasing the color variations found among species (I LOVED the scorpionfish headshots!). The colors are so rich and the details are so amazing in these photos, that you'll wonder if this is a taxonomic guide or an underwater photography how-to. Oh...that's right...it's both!

Underwater photographers will find A Diver's Guide useful for several reasons. First, the photo tips the Ferraris include should help divers increase the quality and size of their personal portfolios. Second, even only a few minutes with the book will provide the underwater photographer with an understanding of what kind of marine life is likely to be found in a given location. This doesn't just mean "in the Red Sea," though; since the Ferraris provide information about where on the reef an animal is likely to be. Third, A Diver's Guide will help photographers label their images correctly. Fourth, some of the tips -- while not directly related to imaging -- may be wise for the underwater photographer to bear in mind anyway. For example, the inexperienced photographer might be less inclined to wag a finger in front of an uncooperative pufferfish after reading that they "are quite capable of severing a human finger."

Inevitably, readers will compare A Diver's Guide to Paul Humann's Reef Fish books. While they're similar in many respects, I think A Diver's Guide is far more beautiful. Frankly, the Ferraris have produced a guidebook that's as much for browsing as it is for referencing. As proof, I submit to you my non-diving wife. As soon as she saw the book on the counter, she grabbed it, sat down, and began leafing through it. Every 20 seconds or so, she'd mutter, "Oooh, have you ever seen a [insert name of fish] before?" She was totally rapt by the images.

Sure, you could buy a local marine life guide covering the specific area you might be diving next Christmas, but no marine guide in the world will excite you with this much color, thrill you with this much variety, and fascinate you with this much information. This is an absolute must-have for any diver who has eyes and plans on using them while diving.
[...]

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Photographs - but little else, June 3, 2007

By 

Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Diver's Guide to Reef Life (Hardcover)

I have to commence by saying that the photography in this book is quite excellent. But that is all. This book fails to match any of the "over the top" descriptions given by other reviewers because it contains far too many basic errors of identification and cannot, therefore, be trusted. That is a fact.

In short, far too many creatures are wrongly identified and this gives the impression that the book was cobbled together as an afterthought from whatever surplus photographs the authors had available.

Make no mistake, Andrea & Antonella Ferrari are excellent photographers but!, during the 9 years in which they have been photographing the underwater world, they have not learned enough about the creatures that have become their subjects. There is far more to Marine Biology than taking a photo and looking up the subject in a book!

[...] Consider this; This is a marine life identification book aimed, primarily, at the scuba diver and that scuba diver will want to know the correct name for whatever creature is being studied at the time. This book often fails to give that correct name.

NM

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PERFECT DIVING REFERENCE BOOK!, May 22, 2007

By 

Binxy* "Binxy*" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Diver's Guide to Reef Life (Hardcover)

its perfect - detailed information about each fish/animal, its habitat, reef location and a clear photo. not much else to say except that if you need to know what you're looking at, this handy sized dictionary or reef life does the job!