Find out more about British marine wildlife (Photographic Guide to Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-west Europe - Ray Gibson)

Member Name: markos9

Product:	Photographic Guide to Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-west Europe - Ray Gibson
Date:	29/04/09 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very comprehensive.

Disadvantages: May have a bit too much scientific notation to be truly readable.

The British Isles has over 12,000 miles of coastline, and the quality of its waters and beaches is higher than at any time for over 100 years. Many people do not realise that the clean waters, Britain's location in the fertile Atlantic and North Seas, together with the variety of different types of shore, means that the variety and amount of sea life that can be found around Britain is vast.

I am the sort of person who likes to know things. If I'm out on a walk and come across a bird or an animal, or even a flower, I want to know what it is. Living in Cheshire means that, in the summer months, I can spend a lot of time exploring the Wirral and North Wales coasts.

It was for this reason that I bought this book, to identify what I was seeing on my excursions. The book proved valuable almost immediately; on a trip to Hilbre Island, I came across what looked like a woodlouse. This woodlouse, however, was almost two inches long! Upon searching through the crustacean section of this book, I spotted my find. It was indeed a relative of the woodlouse, a sea slater. These are common around our islands but mainly come out at night, hence why I'd never seen one before.

The book covers not just Britain, but North-west Europe, too. Glancing through the book, there are hardly any animals that are not found in Britain, but many that are found here and nowhere else; a testimony to the richness of our waters and coastline.

The book is very comprehensive, hundreds of species are described. The book is laid out in taxonomic order, families of organisms together, from primitive lichens, right through to the fishes.

The layout is enhanced with colour coded pages. A key inside the front covers shows the different colours for different groups. Each page is coloured at the edge so the reader can turn to exactly the animal group required.

Each animal is given a third of a page of text and a third of a page photograph. The text is on the left page, the photo on the right page. A map showing the distribution of the creatures is shown also.

The scientific naming system is used to list the animals. This consists of two Latin words; the first is the family name, the second, the species name (for example, Aurelia aurita is the Latin name for the common jellyfish). Where a common name exists (and for many creatures in the book, they don't), this is shown after the Latin name.

The write up for each animal is kept quite brief and to the point. After a description, the habitat and ecology are described, describing where the creature lives, and how it feeds. If any similar species exist, these are then discussed.

In a guide book like this, the photographs are extremely important. A sighting of a creature by the reader will, of course, have been made visually, and it's the photograph that will decide whether the creature can be successfully identified.

Thankfully, the photographs in this book are of an excellent standard. Each animal or plant is shown in full colour and is well lit, with any distinguishing features clearly visible.

Just leafing through the photographs gives an idea of the variety of life around these shores. From the grotesque angler fish (you may have eaten this in a restaurant as monk fish) which uses a lure on top of its head to entice its prey into its huge mouth, to the incredibly colourful cuckoo wrasse, the range of fish species alone is amazing.

There are a huge number of jellyfish, shellfish and crustaceans living here too, far more than most people realise. I was slightly concerned to realise that the massive Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish, a species that can be deadly to humans, can sometimes be driven onto our west coasts. The book indicates that this can happen due to onshore gales, and these dangerous creatures can even be stranded at high tide on the beach, with their deadly stingers still active!

Many people do not realise that corals are common (but at risk) around our shores. The grotesque dead-man's fingers coral looks exactly like its name suggests, whilst there are also corals that would not look out of place on a coral reef.

The book shows just what can be found in and around our shores and, if like me, you like to 'label' what you see, then this guide may prove indispensable. Highly recommended.

The book is available from Amazon in paperback for £11.04.

Summary: The best guide to the life around our shores