Fieldbook of Pacific Northwest Sea Creatures

by Dan H. McLachlan and Jak Ayres

Book Overview

This book shows over two hundred common marine animals as they appear undisturbed in their natural habits. A short biography is given with each species pictured, and its biology is expalined This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879610689
• ISBN13: 9780879610685
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Naturegraph Publishers
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Fieldbook of Pacific North West Sea Cretures

Fieldbook of Pacific North West Sea Creatures This is a nice book for new learners. It starts from the edge of the sea to the depths showing the creatures and explaining about them. This is a nice format to understand where creatures live and it also has pictures to help identify them.

This Was A Lot Of Work A Long Time Ago

Jak and Dan did a huge amount of diving to create this book. Jak was my biology and zoology teacher, and I helped with some of the photos taken on the beach in Olympia. That was 1977, and cameras were not the high tech automated machines they are today. I remember when Jak would get back from particularly successful dive and be positively giggling about getting these photos at all. The waters of the Pacific NW are not like those in places like Hawaii, where the light is on your side. In the murky Puget Sound, just finding these creatures was a major victory, much less getting a visible shot and in focus. As for the shore photos, these crawlies don't sit still and smile for you, and some of them pack a nasty set of pinchers or stingers. It went like this, "You hold it in position until I get it in focus. Then I'll tell you when to pull your hands back." So when you look at that pile worm and think "eeeeewwwww", just imagine my fingers just barely out of view. We all worked long and hard on this book, them way more than I. It took a lot of courage and dedication, and they knew it wasn't going to make them either rich or famous. So be grateful that there are people out there like Jak and Dan willing to take the time so you have something to criticize 30 years later. And that's the truth.

reader and diver

Two of these reviews (which were very critical), must have an axe to grind because this book has been on the market since 1977 when underwater photography was done with the old Nikon IIs with manual underwater settings. It's a miracle the photographs are as good as they are, and they are still very good. I also have no problem with the biology nor with the references and thanks given to the biologists who assisted in putting the book together. The book has been extremely popular with divers, sailors, beachcombers and young marine biologists for 25 years. I've seen people with it at Tongue Point, Neah Bay, Harpers Ferry, and Olympia Marina. I have used it that long myself and have worn two copies out.

This is the best and most complete fieldbook of the PNW

This fieldbook includes pictures and the biology of all common and not so common marine animals one would find in the waters from Northern California to the South Eastern Alaskan waters. Unlike most books of this nature, the beginner as well as the experienced scientist can use this one with ease. It is accurate