A survey of marine life with its own earworm

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, marine animals, animal life, natural history, surveys

I wrote in the prior book review that a naturalist ought to be able to draw and paint. To write a book of natural history such arts are also necessary, and if one cannot self-produce the illustrations, one must have a good artist on call. Fortunately, Dr. Helen Scales was able to call on Marcel George to produce the lovely artwork in Around the Ocean in 80 Fish & Other Sea Life. The book is the latest in a series of "Around the World in 80" something (Trees, Birds, etc.). It also has kept a certain tune in my head for several days now! Here is the Bing Crosby rendition.

The suffix "& other sea life" is well put. Just for fun I compiled the non-fish:

• 16 mollusks, from octopuses and a squid to oysters, clams, snails and sea slugs
• 5 mammals, such as whales and dugongs
• 4 crustaceans, from krill to crabs
• 2 cnidarians: a coral and a jelly (AKA "jellyfish")
• 2 echinoderms: a starfish and a sea cucumber
• and one each sponge, siphonophore (Portuguese man-o-war), and annelid (segmented worm)

That leaves 48 actual fish. Each animal or animal group is depicted on a two page spread, such as this one for Parrotfish. This item has a little more text than usual; the average is one page of the two.

From time to time there is a full two page illustration, such as this one of nudibranchs, which are sea slugs, but there are a number of categories of sea slugs besides nudibranchs.

Considering that there are tens of thousands of fish species, around 100,000 mollusk species, and some 10,000 cnidarians, a book like this isn't even a "tip of the tip of the iceberg", but a smattering of things to entice our appetite for more marine natural history. The little articles are full of tidbits, such as the naming of the Ninja Lanternshark (Etmopterus benchleyi) by some 8-year-olds, because its lighting scheme makes it extra-sneaky; that many of the 60 species of flying fish can glide above the waves for several hundred meters and are as aerodynamically efficient as a hawk; or that the "bone" that stiffens the mantle of a cuttlefish is sometimes used in jewelry making.

And just by the way, cuttlefish display at least as much self-control as a human child in a marine version of the Marshmallow Test. Certain fish also pass the Mirror Test, recognizing that the image in the mirror is themselves. There's much more going on in the ocean than most of us could ever imagine. A book like this expands our imaginations, and I hope it leads some to learn more and further expand.