Customer Reviews

Tropical Pacific Invertebrates

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3 star:		(1)
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I've been looking for a book on tropical Pacific invertebrates for years. This book, with its beautiful photographs and interesting comments about natural history of coral reef animals has given me new insight to the coral reefs of the tropical pacific.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I am a professional biologist and a diver, and I have found it invaluable in identifying the huge diversity of invertebrates in the Indo-Pacific. The pictures, in a word, are spectacular. The background info is well-researched, and actually a joy to read. I think this book would both be useful for someone not very familiar with invertebrates (since each section, from Sponges to Corals to Molluscs and so on, has a wonderful introduction that gives all the salient points without getting into too much technical jargon). The passion and enthusiasm the authors have for marine invertebrates really comes through-- I suggest that after thumbing through even the sponge descriptions and brightly colored photos, you will never look at a tropical sponge the same way again! Along these lines, I would like to respond to one comment made by another reviewer, that he was disappointed that some of the animals are not yet identified to species... Well, that's because so many remain to be described! I think that the authors have done us all a huge favor by beginning to document these hundreds (probably thousands...) of species new to science. I have been using this book for a few years now, and I am still amazed by the shear number of animals they have packed into this book. I have purchased several other "reef invertebrate" books, and frankly, Colin and Arneson's is the only one I come back to, again and again. The information is actually accurate (unlike the myriad of cheap books out there you'd find in a tourist shop), there are few/no misspellings, each description gives you exactly what you need, in terms of classification, description, locality, habitat and special/interesting details on the species, and above all, the photos are _incredible_. I have no idea how the authors managed to get such beautiful photos of each of these species. I suspect some risk was involved... and certainly quite a bit of adventure! Some of these invertebrates I have never seen photos of before. This is not stock photography-- this is the real deal. Many of these photos are important on their own, from a scientific perspective (and they help divers identify what they see, to boot!). I promise you, I have no interest in this other than my love of this book-- but I implore you, if you plan to dive in the Pacific (or dream to someday), particularly anywhere in Micronesia, western Pacific, Australia, etc., and you have the $, please consider buying this book. You will save yourself money and time in the long run, because this is the definitive one you need. I highly doubt it will be outmoded anytime soon. My impression is that Tropical Pacific Invertebrates By Colin and Arneson, represents a life's work-- and enthusiasm for some of the most incredible organisms on Earth.

I use this book primarily to identify invertebrates for other divers for the indo-pacific waters. Personally I am disappointed with the near to absence of details. Photos are numerous however smallish with many labeled `unknown'. I have not found it particularly useful for my own home Hawaiian waters critter IDing. It is an expensive (merely) addition to my reference library.