The Editor's Book Picks
The Best of the Dive Books for Serious Divers

A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer
by David C. Powell, Sylvia A. Earle

(University of California Press/Monterey Bay Aquarium, 2001). Here's a new book with a slant on the underwater world like no other: the adventures of a marine biologist in search of critters to populate the tanks of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Marine World of the Pacific, and other scientific displays. The author, David Powell, began his collecting career when at five years old, after going fishing for the first time, he brought home a fish he caught and slept with it under his pillow. His career culminated by serving as curator of the Monterey Bay Aquarium for nearly 20 years.

When Powell started diving, he used longjohns to keep warm. He made his first underwater light from a used sealed beam automobile headlight connected to a surface battery for power. No depth gauge; no BCD; no submersible pressure gauge. Powell describes how public aquariums set up displays, collect the animals, bring them home, and how they keep them alive and display them. Yet the best part is his description of the many journeys he takes to dive and collect fish, up and down the coast of California and Mexico, hunting the Coelacanth in Africa, searching for flashlight fish with John McCosker and joining Sylvia Earle in a critter search. Indeed a delightful read. 352 pages, $29.95 list.

Blue Wilderness
by Ron Taylor (Photographer), Valerie Taylor.

Aussie dive celebrities, Ron and Valerie Taylor, have produced a beautiful volume commemorating their years of discovery with the sharks of the South Pacific. In Blue Wilderness, these pioneers of the chainmail suit discuss their adventures in cinema (Blue Water, White Death; Jaws), the attacks on Valerie, up-close encounters with the Great White, experiments with shark repellents, adventures with the Potato Cod, etc. More than 100 superb photographs and riveting text make this a superb gift. Hardbound, 10" x 12" 160 pages. List $75, discounted 30%. Order now.

One of my favorite foods, the wild Pacific Salmon, is now on the endangered list and I am mad. While it doesn't help how I feel, Carl Safina's book does clarify for me the difficulties and complexities of managing the world's fisheries. Safina travels, dives and interviews fisher folk on both U. S. Coast's and the "Far Pacific". During this experience he uses his scientific skills as well as political analysis to indicate that unregulated global commerce has led to a drastic depletion in the world's fisheries. However, he also shows that in some cases there have been slight increases and this is encouraging. His position is, if we understand what fish and other wildlife need we can then manage our other resources to minimize damage. In 1984 a U. S. Fish Commission report to Congress told of a large decrease in the Salmon harvest but nothing was done about it. Perhaps Safina's work will help us understand the problem and our role in it. Hard cover, 458 pages, $21.00

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
by Gary Kinder

I enjoy reading about sunken treasure. Clive Cussler has led me on many imaginary dives with fantastic equipment. Kinder's book is just as exciting but is real. Drawing from newspaper reports and discovered diaries Kinder introduces us to a few of the passengers on the SS CENTRAL AMERICA which sank in a hurricane in 1857. This disaster took over 400 lives and 21 tons of gold, which has a present value of $1` billion. Tommy Thompson, an engineer from Ohio finds the wreck 130 years later in 8,000 feet of water. In three years of hard work the treasure is recovered. What he and his group go through and how they work at 8,000 feet kept me turning the pages; and I didn't miss Dirk one little bit. Hard cover, 507 pages, $19.25. Paperback, 560 pages, $11.20.

Blue Water Hunting and Freediving
by Terry Maas

is a remarkable book of photos and text of the freedivers who hang at 30 feet to hunt tuna and marlin, sailfish and wahoo. I don't spear, but I admire the courage and skill of these breathhold hunters. Great stories of adventure, danger, shark attacks, hunts, and the encounters of prey and predators. Author and oral surgeon Terry Maas, who in one photo is dwarfed by the 398-pound bluefin he shot, is a five-time national spearfishing champion. Plenty of full-color hunt photos. Exciting and unusual -- a great book for your coffee table. Hardbound, 200 pages, $39.95.

Underwater photography - what to use, how to use it, what to carry, and how to maintain it, Norbert Wu's How to Photograph Underwater tells it all, and has an extensive section on how to sell them after you've taken them. Wouldn't it be nice if your photos would help pay for your trip? Paperback, color plates, 7 x 9, 118 pages.

Just about any question you could think to ask about photography is answered in the Manual of Underwater Photography by Andrew Green and Heinz-Gert de Couet of Hackett, Australia. It covers the usual topics - extension tubes, natural-light photography, strobe power, guide numbers, etc. - but is especially useful on subjects that don't get treated systematically elsewhere. A chapter on film discusses differences between Ektachrome, Kodachrome, and Fujichrome, and why professional films are generally not suitable. Another, on strobe photography, has a wealth of information on producing the kind of lighting effects you need for winning photographs. The Manual covers split-level and wreck photography, underwater modeling, night photography, fish portraits, and plankton photography. There are 74 excellent color photographs, most with technical information. As an amateur photographer who's never quite sure how to get the best shot, I'm enthusiastic about this book. It has just about all the information I'll ever need. Whether I can ever apply it is another story. Hardbound, 7 x 10, 394 pages.

is the most advanced and informative book on clinical diving medicine. Written for doctors and paramedics, it belongs in the library of every serious diver. Its 566 pages cover diving fatalities, the female diver, psychological problems, long-term diving disorders, hearing loss and vertigo, cardiac disease, bends, embolisms, animal injuries, emergency first aid, and more. Paperback, $54.95.

Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean
by Osha Gray Davidson.

Scientists and divers see tumors on green turtles, first in Hawaii, then Florida, then elsewhere. While the tumors at first seem superficial and can be removed, they soon spread into the turtles organs . . . Turtle populations plummet. And the race begins to find the cause? What's in the water? Why aren't fish seemingly affected? What does this portend for our seas, as the problem expands and continues today. Journalist Osha Gray Davidson gives us an inside look at the Cayman turtle farms -- and the history of Cayman's turtles and turtle fishing since Columbus' time -- and dives with turtles at Maui's Turtle House. He tells us what was behind the big Caribbean sea urchin die off a decade ago, what's happening in the dying waters of California's Monterrey Bay, and Alaska's sea cow slaughters. Davidson's keen eye produces a marine biologist's thriller for the lay reader, while touching on plenty of topics dear to a diver's heart.. An extremely well written, informative and suspenseful book, you'll have a hard time putting it down. Fire in the Turtle House is available here, which will deliver you Amazon.com's best prices and send a hunk of the profit directly to preserve coral reefs. The current price is $18.20 (336 pages, hardbound).

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