Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Photographic Guide to Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-west Europe (Oxford natural history)
 
 

See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Photographic Guide to Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-west Europe (Oxford natural history) [Paperback]

Ray Gibson (Author), Ben Hextall (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback --   -- --
Video Games Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product details

  • Paperback: 456 pages
  • Publisher: OUP Oxford (7 Jun 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0198507097
  • ISBN-13: 978-0198507093
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 130,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

  • See Complete Table of Contents

More About the Author

Ray Gibson
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Ray Gibson Page

Product Description

Review

"You need a good wildlife guide to enjoy the full seashore experience, but until now it's been hard to find one ... Thankfully, Oxford University Press has gone all-out to remedy the situation. Its new photographic guide is perfect for researchers, undergraduates, keen amateurs or just a family outing."--BBC Wildlife

Product Description

This photographic guide to sea shore animals and plants represents a completely new approach to field guides. It is aimed at those who wish to find and identify organisms encountered on the sea shore or immediately offshore quickly and easily while promoting their conservation. Uniquely, each species is illustrated by a photograph and, in most cases, accompanied by a line drawing that emphasises the critical features for identification and a map to show the distribution of the species in North-West Europe. The text itself deliberately focuses on features that complement the photographs and facilitate identification non-destructively - where, for example, burrowing worms can only be identified by digging them up and therefore killing them, only the cast, the part usually seen, is shown. Stress is laid on the importance of exploiting all available information for locating and identifying each species - if two species have identical appearance they are described separately and behavioural, geographical, or seasonal features that distinguish them are described in the text. There is no other guide to sea shore organisms like this one; those available are either less comprehensive or less well illustrated. It will appeal to beachcombers of all levels, from families to students and professionals, as well to divers and those visiting the proliferating numbers of commercially run marine aquaria that are open to the public.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Lichens are compound plants, comprising fungi and algae living together symbiotically as a thallus (plants not separated into leaf, stem, and root). Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(3)
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars A surprising number of errors and misleading information, 18 Oct 2001
By 
Rohan H. Holt (Bangor, North Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Photographic Guide to the Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-West Europe (Oxford natural history) (Hardcover)
Its pretty cover will undoubtedly sell it to the unsuspecting public, and at first sight it appears to be just what divers need - a photographic identification guide, with an easy to follow layout, species photos, notes, key identification features and distribution maps. Unfortunately, this book doesn't live up to its promise, and the more you examine it the less trustworthy it proves.

After only a quick flick through the pictures we found at least a dozen glaring errors where the photos used to illustrate easily recognised species were of a completely different species (examples: the football seasquirt Diazona violacea, sponge Raspailia hispida, sea gooseberry Pleurobrachia pileus, sea cucumber Neopentadactyla mixta and seaweed Scytosiphon lomentaria) and there was even one image used more than once to illustrate different species! A more detailed look at the guide, including testing it during a marine taxanomic workshop involving experts from all over the UK and Ireland, revealed many more errors. Many of the distribution maps are inaccurate, and for a book that claims to cover the area from the Bay of Biscay to Norway, it has a distinctly southern bias. Many common and easily identified northern British species are missing, even the lumpsucker. Yet they include the southern seaslug Hypselodoris messinensis, which doesn't occur in Britain as far as we know. And have the authors got something against Wales - what about the seafans and many other southern and western species which occur in Pembrokeshire?

The authors have used a mixture of new and out-of-date scientific names, and many common names have been omitted - why they didnt stick to 'industry standards' set in the Marine Conservation Society's Species Directory? While many of the photos are good, others are too poor for identification purposes (notably many of the seaweeds), and many (dead?) specimens are photographed against a sandy background, giving the wrong impression of their natural habitat.

Amateur naturalists and students studying marine biology cannot put their trust in this guide as it is. Will Oxford University Press withdraw this edition from the shelves until a second and substantially more trustworthy edition is produced? - I doubt it.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Nice layout, but poor identification accuracy, 28 Oct 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Photographic Guide to the Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-West Europe (Oxford natural history) (Hardcover)
I have identified and recorded marine molluscs for 20+ years, mainly as an amateur, so I was pleased to see a new photo marine ID book. The layout is good; but that is the only positive aspect of the book. I list points concerning the mollusc section.

1. The book says species are mostly illustrated in their natural habitat - at least 15 species are in the wrong habitat eg p. 279 Lasaea 'rubra', and others are misleading.

2. The nomenclature is out of date - the Species Directory (published 1997 by Ulster Museum/Marine Conservation Society) is the accepted version by most professionals.

3. Some of the distribution maps are wrong eg p.237 Osilinus lineatus (which is a widely known species).

4.The drawings are cursory and add little eg p. 237 Gibbula umbilicalis.

5. The text is inaccurate in places eg under Barleeia unifasciata - Assiminea grayana occurs in Ireland; under Hydrobia ulvae - ventrosa and neglecta CANNOT be separated by shell characters

6. The quality of the photos is very poor in places eg p. 243 Rissoa parva

7. The worst aspect of the book is the high level of inaccuracy in the identifications. 18 of the mollusc photos are incorrectly identified (nearly 15%) eg. all photos on pages 249 and 267 are wrong! Experts in other groups have also found inaccuracies of identification.

This book is supposed be a identification guide. It is therefore unacceptable, and a considerable disappointment, to have such a high level of inaccuracy.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great for scuba divers in the UK, 2 Feb 2002
By 
M. Lumsden "Rebreathergirl" (Cheltenham UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Photographic Guide to Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-west Europe (Oxford natural history) (Paperback)
Whilst I may not be able to substantiate the biological accuracy of this book I found it hugely enjoyable to use.
I dive frequently in the waters around the UK, this book has shown me much of the wealth and diversity of our local sealife. Many people imagine that our compared to the great barrier reef there is relativly nothing to see.

The format was clear and easy to use. Photatgraphs were wonderful, too many times have I had identification books with little line drawing that were just dull to look at.

In my opinion this book may be lacking in some areas but for a non biologist it provides a great entry into the underwater world of life.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews








Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject






















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback