Marine Biology References
These books are indispensable for identifying the plants and animals found along the North Atlantic seashore. These should be available at any major bookstore.
A good project for rainy days and snowed-in weekends is to go through the plates ( illustrations ) in your field guides and highlight all the species that are found in your area. This will make the guides far more useful, and also give you a chance to become more familiar with the plants and animals you may encounter. Beats watching television.
Field Guides
Peterson's Field Guides - Atlantic Coast Fishes
Robins / Ray / Douglass
Houghton Mifflin, 1986
354 pages, illustrated, color
essential for NJ divers
Peterson's Field Guides - Atlantic Seashore
Kenneth L. Gosner
Houghton Mifflin, 1979
330 pages, illustrated, color
essential for NJ divers
Peterson's Field Guides - Freshwater Fishes
Page / Brooks
Houghton Mifflin, 1986
432 pages, illustrated, color
Beachcomber's Guide from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras: Marine Life of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland
Henry Keatts
Gulf Publishing, 1995
248 pages, illustrated, color, BW
Fishes of Chesapeake Bay
Edward O. Murdy
Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002
360 pages, illustrated, color, BW
Golden Guides - Pond Life
George K. Reid
Golden Press, 1967
160 pages, illustrated, color:
Tropical Field Guides
Peterson's Field Guides - Coral Reefs
Eugene H. Kaplan
Houghton Mifflin, 1982
289 pages, illustrated, color
Peterson's Field Guides - Southwestern and Caribbean Seashores
Eugene H. Kaplan
Houghton Mifflin, 1988
425 pages, illustrated, color
Scientific
If you are scientifically inclined, the bible:
( of fishes, that is )
Fishes of the Gulf of Maine
originally Fishery Bulletin #74, 1953
revised & updated
Bigelow & Schroeder
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
vol 53, no. 74, 1953
This government publication is available in three forms online, as well as in print:
Website - recommended | PDF (43MB) | EPUB (4MB)
Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay
originally Bulletin of the US Bureau of Fisheries, Vol XLIII, 1927
revised & updated
Samuel F. Hildebrand, William C. Schroeder
The Blackburn Press, 2002
388 pages
Aquarium
Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook
Robert J. Goldstein
Barron's, 1997
198 pages, illustrated, color
This is the best technical saltwater guide I have found.
Other
The Secret Life of Lobsters
Trevor Corson
Harper Collins, 2004
Cod
Mark Kurlansky, 1997
The Founding Fish
John McPhee
Harper Collins, 2004