The Marine Conservation Society
Guide to Inshore Marine Life
By
David Erwin and Bernard Picton
Foreword
Anyone who has sat beside a rock pool, been snorkelling or diving in the sea, will be fascinated by the wealth of marine life they have seen. With their appetites whetted they will go to the book shelf to find a marine life guide to explain what they have seen. At that point they will be disappointed to find that the illustrations often bear little or no resemblance to what they have seen and that the scientific jargon used confuses rather than enlightens. The Marine Conservation Society Guide to the Inshore Marine Life aims to change that.
The authors have with their considerable talents sought to break new ground to assist visitors to the sea shore. David Erwin and I first collaborated on a project to enable divers to record the marine life they saw whilst underwater. Many of the ideas he pioneered then are developed in this guide. In the organisation of this guide he has deliberately set out to break with convention in a way which builds on peoples expe- rience, and which assists them to get quickly to the photo- graphs which are most likely to be relevant to their interest.
The photographs are superb and have been taken by Bernard Picton, one of the leading photographers of marine life in this country. The photographs of living species show just how spectacular these organisms are when they are alive. They also show their natural habitats, a feature which often considerably aids indentification.
The ideas behind this book have been forming for a number of years, and considerable effort has gone into the selection of the species which represent some of the most conspicuous and common species to be found in European waters. Much of the information used in the guide has come from the work of volunteer divers who have taken part in many of the Marine Conservation Society projects and the guide is a fitting tribute to their considerable activities and enthusiasm.
The efforts of the Marine Conservation Society and its members are aimed at helping to explain the wonders of the marine world. We hope that this guide will help you to enjoy the marine life you see, and that it will encourage you to share these experiences with others to further the cause of marine conversation.
Preface
Many academic publications and monographs are available for the definitive identification of the Marine Life of the North East Atlantic. For the majority of people, however most of these writings are either inaccessible or incomprehensible. They provide a way for the experienced professional marine biologist to identify material but they do not give any help to the beginner or the enthusiast without the benefit of formal training. They deal with the subject at a level of complexity far beyond the needs of the average reader, often acting as a barrier to developing interest. The animals and plants described seem to be remote and obscure. Yet in the marine environment the organisms are far from obscure. We encounter them "face to face" every time we dive in the sea or look into a rock pool. We feel a need to be able to put a name on what we are seeing and perhaps learn a little about it.
This book uses photographs taken underwater in an attempt to make that possible. It is not intended as a comprehensive iden- tification manual but rather as an introduction to the wealth of marine life found in the shallow water around our coasts. The200 species illustrated are not the only animals or plants you can expect to find but they are some of the more easily recog- nised ones. Anywhere on the coast, on every dive and In any rock pool, you will always be able to find something illustrated within these covers.
Contents
■ Life in the Sea
■ How to use this book
■ What is it?
■ Latin Names
■ Where does it live?
■ Fish
■ Echinodermata
■ Crustacea
■ Cnidaria
■ Mollusca
■ Porifera
■ Worms
■ Bryozoa
■ Tunicata
■ Algae
■ Acknowledegments
■ For further information
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