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by Linda E. Tway 
A valuable guide to the intertidal zone
My wife Fayaway and I have lived in the Catskills for many years, but several of our friends on the West Coast, in an effort to convince us to join them in Southern California, sent us two dozen or so books about the natural history of the region. The wildlife and settings described in these guides helped us decide to move to Malibu Lake, California, and this field guide was among those books they sent us. Since our relocation, we have spent several weeks travelling up and down the Southern California coast with these friends, and this book. One of its finest features is its color photographs of the creatures found in tidepools, obviously taken by someone with experience in underwater photography. These photos serve admirably as a means to identify the various plants and invertebrates of the intertidal zone, as we can attest: we spotted many of the different types of chitons, sea stars, barnacles and crabs depicted in this book. The fine photographs in this book made identification a simple matter. And the descriptions which accompany each plate are also invaluable. As if these portraits of each creature weren't enough, the guides to the individual tidepools of the area are even better. Each locale has its own description, with a rating based on accessibility, safety, and abundance of various life forms, a note about the nature of the rocks in which the pools are found, a list of the creatures most likely to be seen there, and other information of interest. The sections on the ecology of the intertidal zone, tidepool safety and conservation, the origin of the tides and further reading, all make this book even more useful. With more than 90 different tidepools described in this book, those naturalists who want to become sea-side rock hoppers will find places enough to keep them happily busy for many years. I hope that this book comes back into print soon. |
