Offshore Industry News

Fantastic Fish Guide is Easy to Use and Fascinating to Peruse

If a sheepshead porgy wiggled past your snorkel mask, would you know her name? How about a bucktooth parrotfish or a southern stargazer? Most people wouldn’t, but that’s okay, because when it comes to exploring Florida waters, even marine biologists often refer to field guides. The problem is that field guides tend to be either highly technical or difficult to navigate.

A new book from Johns Hopkins Press is not only easy to use, it’s chock full of photos and and facts that make identifying Florida’s marine fishes easy.

The most comprehensive book about Florida’s marine fishes ever produced, Marine Fishes of Florida includes hundreds of photographs and descriptions of species you’ll encounter—plus many that are rare—when diving, snorkeling, kayaking, or fishing. Coverage includes both the Atlantic and Gulf coastline, from habitats near the shore to deeper waters. Fishes found in coastal rivers and other brackish waters are fully represented, as are offshore species that venture into Florida’s waters often enough to be called “occasional visitors.”

From the largest sharks to the smallest cryptic gobies, from homely toadfishes to the spectacularly colored reef fishes, this book is certain to help you better understand the fish you’ve seen or hooked.

Snyder and Burgess intertwine personal observations with results from research studies to provide accurate—often surprising—details. The result is beautifully succinct identification descriptions coupled with information about each species’ natural history, their distribution and habitat, and a little basic background on each family.

For example, back to the stargazer, a “grumpy looking, lie-in-wait predator . . . they have elecric organs just behind their eyes, capable of delivering a respectable 50 volts. This may not be enough to kill prey or knock waders off their feet, but the electric field that is created possibly could attract small fishes into the vicinity of the waiting mouth or stun them just enough to distract them. The electric organs are derived from muscles formerly use in eye movement. To compensate for the loss of these muscles, souther stargazers use fluid-filled cavities under the eyes to push them upward, above the bottom, allowing the fish to see.”

Marine Fishes of Florida includes: over 500 color photographs by leading marine photographers; differentiation of adult and juvenile forms; coverage of 133 fish families and hundreds of species; size and geographical range data; natural history and conservation notes; and explanations of geologic history and current habitats.

The author’s write, “This book is written for those who want a little more insight than they may get from a field guide before (or after) exploring marine or estuarine waters of Florida. Our intended audience includes anglers, divers, fish watchers, biologists, and natural-history buffs interested in learning more about marine fishes of this state.”

To order Marine Fishes of Florida, click here.

About the Authors: David B. Snyder is a senior scientist with CSA Ocean Sciences Inc in Stuart, Florida. His photographs of fishes have appeared in numerous field guides and publications, including on the cover of ECO (September 2016). George H. Burgess is the coordinator of museum operations and the director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. He is the coauthor of Sharks: The Animal Answer Guide.

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