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Wonders of Western Waters: The Marine Life of South-Western Australia by Sue Morrison and Ann Storrie
ISBN: 9780730968948
Publisher: Department of Conservation and Land Management. (Now renamed the Department of Environment and Conservation)
Date: 1999
Format: Paperback (glossy cover, glossy paper)
Pages: 143 pages
Dimensions: 148mm W x 209mm H x 100mm D
Price: less than A$20
Wonders of Western Waters is a small, cheap book providing an excellent overview of marine life in the temperate waters of south-west Western Australia.
The book covers over 1500km of coastline from Jurien Bay to Esperance, including the Perth metropolitan area and the popular vacation destination of "Down South". Obviously the authors couldn't include all species, but somehow managed to provide good coverage of the common species and some rarer species. There's a good balance between book size, number of species, detail of information and size of photos. The result is a good "first stop" to identifying common species of this area.
The book is very well structured for both quick browsing and leisurely reading. Content is logically arranged in 14 chapters: Introduction; Seaweeds; Seagrasses; Sponges; Corals and allied groups; Worms; Crabs and other crustaceans; Molluscs; Bryozoans; Sea stars and their relatives; Sea squirts; Fish; Mammals; Recommended reading. The chapter on Corals and allied groups has four sub-sections: Hard corals, soft corals and their relatives; Hydrozoans; Jellyfish and box jellyfish; Comb jellies. The table of contents lists the common name of all species within each chapter. At the back is an alphabetical index thats moderately easy to use but doesnt include scientific names.
The content is approximately 50% photography and 50% text. There are usually two species per page, though some critters have a whole page with 2 or 3 photos. Species have a heading (including scientific name*), usually one photo, and between 1 and 5 paragraphs of often fascinating information about anatomy, behaviour, special feature, etc. Im not an expert, but the info seems unusually accurate compared to other books of this size. That's not surprising, because the acknowledgments include people from the WA museum and Murdoch University.
*Many similar books dont mention scientific names, so this is an excellent feature.
The writing style is easy to read; neither too formal nor too casual. It's written for adults but would be suitable for interested children. The writing is quite consistent which aids browsing; for example habitat and location are usually described in the final paragraph. If a species is especially common at a particular location then that's mentioned in the last sentence, which is great for speed-reading.
A coloured line points from each species' heading to its photo, avoiding confusion when several photos of different species appear on one page. More books should do this! Note that many of the photos appear in other books and websites by this (state government) publisher.
This was my first snorkeling-related book, and helped me learn to recognise the difference between similar-looking phyla like ascidians, bryozoans, corals, sponges, etc. Ive built up a small library of books on marine life in my area but I still turn to this book first for quick species IDs, or when I just want a way to prolong my snorkeling trip after I get home.
Review by ImParticipating, 7 November 2009.
Book recommended for:
Anyone wanting a cheap first book on this topic.
People who want a quick rough id.
People who have no idea what critters are, so need everything covered in one place.
ISBN: 9780730968948
Publisher: Department of Conservation and Land Management. (Now renamed the Department of Environment and Conservation)
Date: 1999
Format: Paperback (glossy cover, glossy paper)
Pages: 143 pages
Dimensions: 148mm W x 209mm H x 100mm D
Price: less than A$20
Wonders of Western Waters is a small, cheap book providing an excellent overview of marine life in the temperate waters of south-west Western Australia.
The book covers over 1500km of coastline from Jurien Bay to Esperance, including the Perth metropolitan area and the popular vacation destination of "Down South". Obviously the authors couldn't include all species, but somehow managed to provide good coverage of the common species and some rarer species. There's a good balance between book size, number of species, detail of information and size of photos. The result is a good "first stop" to identifying common species of this area.
The book is very well structured for both quick browsing and leisurely reading. Content is logically arranged in 14 chapters: Introduction; Seaweeds; Seagrasses; Sponges; Corals and allied groups; Worms; Crabs and other crustaceans; Molluscs; Bryozoans; Sea stars and their relatives; Sea squirts; Fish; Mammals; Recommended reading. The chapter on Corals and allied groups has four sub-sections: Hard corals, soft corals and their relatives; Hydrozoans; Jellyfish and box jellyfish; Comb jellies. The table of contents lists the common name of all species within each chapter. At the back is an alphabetical index thats moderately easy to use but doesnt include scientific names.
The content is approximately 50% photography and 50% text. There are usually two species per page, though some critters have a whole page with 2 or 3 photos. Species have a heading (including scientific name*), usually one photo, and between 1 and 5 paragraphs of often fascinating information about anatomy, behaviour, special feature, etc. Im not an expert, but the info seems unusually accurate compared to other books of this size. That's not surprising, because the acknowledgments include people from the WA museum and Murdoch University.
*Many similar books dont mention scientific names, so this is an excellent feature.
The writing style is easy to read; neither too formal nor too casual. It's written for adults but would be suitable for interested children. The writing is quite consistent which aids browsing; for example habitat and location are usually described in the final paragraph. If a species is especially common at a particular location then that's mentioned in the last sentence, which is great for speed-reading.
A coloured line points from each species' heading to its photo, avoiding confusion when several photos of different species appear on one page. More books should do this! Note that many of the photos appear in other books and websites by this (state government) publisher.
This was my first snorkeling-related book, and helped me learn to recognise the difference between similar-looking phyla like ascidians, bryozoans, corals, sponges, etc. Ive built up a small library of books on marine life in my area but I still turn to this book first for quick species IDs, or when I just want a way to prolong my snorkeling trip after I get home.
Review by ImParticipating, 7 November 2009.
Book recommended for:
Anyone wanting a cheap first book on this topic.
People who want a quick rough id.
People who have no idea what critters are, so need everything covered in one place.
