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

Atlantic Coast Fishes

Peterson's Field Guides - Atlantic Coast Fishes
Robins / Ray / Douglass
Houghton Mifflin, 1986
354 pages, illustrated, color

essential for NJ divers


Atlantic Seashore

Peterson's Field Guides - Atlantic Seashore
Kenneth L. Gosner
Houghton Mifflin, 1979
330 pages, illustrated, color

essential for NJ divers


Freshwater Fishes

Peterson's Field Guides - Freshwater Fishes
Page / Brooks
Houghton Mifflin, 1986
432 pages, illustrated, color




Beachcomber's Guide

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

Fishes of Chesapeake Bay
Edward O. Murdy
Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002
360 pages, illustrated, color, BW



Pond Life

Golden Guides - Pond Life
George K. Reid
Golden Press, 1967
160 pages, illustrated, color:



Tropical Field Guides

Coral Reefs

Peterson's Field Guides - Coral Reefs
Eugene H. Kaplan
Houghton Mifflin, 1982
289 pages, illustrated, color




Southwestern and Caribbean Seashores

Peterson's Field Guides - Southwestern and Caribbean Seashores
Eugene H. Kaplan
Houghton Mifflin, 1988
425 pages, illustrated, color



Scientific

Fishes of the Gulf of Maine

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

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

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

The Secret Life of Lobsters
Trevor Corson
Harper Collins, 2004







Cod
Mark Kurlansky, 1997





The Founding Fish

The Founding Fish

John McPhee
Harper Collins, 2004


Papers (PDF)


bug
This little guy will be safe from divers for a while. Notice how the tailings of his excavation are a different color than the surrounding bottom.

Lobsters, like most invertebrates, have a much slower nervous system than our own. In tiny creatures, such as insects, this is no great disadvantage, since their "wire runs" ( or nerves ) are so short. However, in bigger invertebrates, this translates into very long reaction times. Therefore, big lobsters have slow reflexes, much slower than even humans. Another common invertebrate trait is a lack of stamina, at least compared to us. In other words, they tire quickly in a chase. This is not to say that they lack tenacity - once they get a good grip on you, they can hold on forever, and even breaking the claw off may not cause it to release.

Printed from njscuba.net