Books to Make You Smarter Divers

You may not be aware of how many helpful books for divers have been published in the past few years, but they're all available from Undercurrent. Go to our list of books at www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/booklist.shtml . Click on any book listed, you'll get the best price offered by Amazon.com, and our proceeds will be plowed back in to saving reefs and oceans.

In fact, when you click on Undercurrent's link to Amazon, we get two to four percent of what you spend on anything -- a DVD, binoculars, a refrigerator, running shoes, even a Zodiac -- and we use that income to support a few projects that directly affect our reefs and our oceans.

Here are just a few of the scores of books you'll find on our website.

And thanks for supporting us.

-- Ben Davison

Dive Travel Guides

Diving Indonesia's Raja Ampat, by Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock. This 146-page book is filled with descriptions of mind-blowing dive sites, photos of unusual critters, and good descriptions of the area, the people and what you need to know to dive there.

Diving Southeast Asia, by Beth and Shaun Tierney. A must for anyone contemplating diving in Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand. Maps make it easy to pinpoint dive destinations and travel routes. Descriptions of 250 dive sites include tables on depth, visibility and currents.

Fifty Places to Dive Before You Die, edited by Chris Santella. A bevy of well-known divers wax about their top dive destinations, ranging from Indonesia and Utila to cold-water spots in the U.K. and New Zealand. The descriptions are brief and to the point, just enough to help you decide whether to do more research for your next dive trip.

Fish Identification

The Reef Set: Reef Fish, Reef Creature and Reef Coral (3 Volumes), by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach. The three-set ID books are the unparalleled sources for information on Caribbean sea life and identification. These have been recently updated and expanded, with scores of new critters, even better photos and information unavailable anywhere else.

Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific, by Terrence M. Gosliner, David W. Behrens and Gary C. Williams. Perfect for your next muck dive, a complete guide to help you identify the uncountable variety of weird critters you'll see on any Indo-Pacific dive, complete with full-color photos of 1,100 species. The three marine biologists cover reefs from the Solomons to Sipadan, Palau to Papua New Guinea, with good notes to help you find and identify each critter.

A Diver's Guide to Reef Life, by Andrea and Antonella Ferrari. This colorful reference guide has 1,300 excellent color photographs of tropical marine species in reefs worldwide. The authors also give tips for better underwater photos.

Hawaii's Sea Creatures, by John Hoover. Know more about the islands' undersea realm through 600 color photos of lobsters, nudibranchs, octopuses, corals and a host of other lesser-known creatures encountered by divers in Hawaii. As in his fish ID book, Hawaii's Fishes, Hoover provides scientific, common and Hawaiian names for each animal, and a generous paragraph or more detailing its natural history, ecology and cultural importance.

Reef Creature Identification: Tropical Pacific, by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach. The definitive identification guide to the region, featuring 1,600 extraordinary reef creatures of the Tropical Pacific. In this softbound guide, you get upwards of 2,000 exceptional photographs, including several photos of some creatures during their different life stages.

Adventure

There's a Cockroach in My Regulator, by Undercurrent. Our book 240-page book is filled with 30 years of the best of the unusual, the entertaining, and the jaw-dropping stories Undercurrent has published. They're true, often unbelievable and always fascinating.

The Devil's Teeth, by Susan Casey. In this bestseller, Casey writes about her time spent living on the barren Farallon Islands, home to the world's biggest gathering of great white sharks. She gives a fascinating account of the sharks, their behavior, killing strategies and long-distance travels, and life with the researchers who track them.

Shadow Divers, by Robert Kurson. A German U-boat discovered at 230 feet off of New Jersey in 1991 is the setting for this thrilling adventure, where divers on compressed air fight narcosis, ripping currents, bad visibility -- and themselves. Perhaps the best dive adventure ever.

Photography

A Diver's Guide to the Art of Underwater Photography, by Andrea and Antonella Ferrari. This book is filled with spectacular images designed not only to offer great technical guidance, but also to help the underwater photographer discover and develop the artist within. Rigorously field-tested digital techniques; the hidden techniques behind imaginative framing and lighting, wide-angle and fish-eye to macro photography -- that and much more is in this highly-readable, technically-accessible, step-by-step guide.

Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography, by Jack and Sue Drafahl. The book for digital photographers at levels, covering professional exposure and lighting techniques, dealing with blooming and backscatter, super macro, equipment maintenance. Includes scores of photos and diagrams every digital underwater technique. When you're back home from the dive trip, pick up the Drafahls' Adobe Photoshop for Underwater Photographers.

Step Zero: Getting Started on a Scuba Photo Trip, by Dennis Adams, and Cathy and Peter Swan. This book provides a full 17-page checklist of everything you need to travel and shoot for an underwater photography dive trip, plus an orderly planning and procurement schedule, and scores of insider's tips. An essential for anyone planning a first-time photo safari, just as useful for any diver who still kicks himself for leaving home without that one crucial item and missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity below.

For Kids

Shark Encounters, by Michael Patrick O'Neill. The text is for grades 1 to 4, but the photos are for all ages. O'Neill has a section for each shark type, with some description about markings, behavior and favorite meals. It will spark kids' interest in learning more.

World Without Fish, by Mark Kurlansky. The author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, offers this full-color graphic novel for kids ages 11 and up, about what's happening to fish and the oceans. It also tells kids exactly what they can do to help them. A Silent Spring for a new generation.