Great British marine animals - Paul Naylor

This book is a colourful photographic guide to the fabulous wealth of marine fish and invertebrate life found in the seas around Britain. These fascinating creatures range from the simple but spectacular sea anemones to the sophisticated chameleon-like cuttlefish, and from the feisty velvet swimming crab to the appealing tompot blenny. The book's aim is to aid identification of the different animal species but also to go much further than a simple "spotter's guide". It describes the colourful and often bizarre lifestyles of these animals, using pairs or sequences of photographs. There are, for example, pictures that show crabs in pre-mating embrace and digging for food, reef-building worms, sea slugs in mating chains and laying eggs, cuttlefish courting, starfish spawning and pulling open their prey and fish engaged in cleaning activities and nest-building. Details of life cycles and interactions between animals are also incorporated. Great British Marine Animals is intended for snorkellers, divers and anyone who loves the sea.;Written with non-specialists firmly in mind, a large amount of information on the different animals is included but with the minimum use of technical terms. With the visual impact of many full-page and half-page photographs, the book will appeal to young children as well as adults. The book has 230 pages and contains 350 colour photographs. There are sections on the following types of marine life: Sponges Sea anemones Corals Hydroids Jellyfish Worms Crabs Lobsters Prawns and Shrimps Barnacles Sea snails Sea slugs Bivalve molluscs Octopus and cuttlefish Bryozoans Starfish Brittle stars Sea urchins Sea cucumbers Feather stars Sea squirts Dogfish and rays Eels Cod and their relatives Pipefish Sea scorpions Clingfish Mullet, bass and weevers Wrasse Blennies and gobies Flatfish. The author, Paul Naylor, has a doctorate in marine biology and has been photographing the marine life in British seas for 20 years. His previous book, Marine Animals of the South West, attracted a wide readership including schoolchildren, university students, naturalists and divers.;Since the publication of the second edition of Marine Animals of the South West, the author has concentrated on taking photographs of marine animals in other areas of Britain. This material is now included in Great British Marine Animals, along with even more illustrations of the animal's habits. Approximately half of the 350 photographs are new.