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Reef Life by Denise Nielsen Tackett & Larry Tackett
Reef Life by Denise Nielsen Tackett & Larry Tackett
The Tacketts, Denise Nielsen and Larry, have achieved something remarkable with their book Reef Life.
Not only is the quality of the photographs consistently high, but the detailed information within the text is logical and accessible to any divers, whether they be experts in marine biology or simply curious fish-watchers.
This American husband-and-wife team seem to have lived many divers' dream existence. Travelling the Indo-Pacific for 13 years, they would camp on a beach with their own compressor and make three dives a day, collecting sponge specimens for medical research.
Any diver will learn from Reef Life. For example, I knew that pearlfish (Carapodidae) were those sneaky little creatures that enjoy crawling into the anus of a sea cucumber. What I did not know was that the pearlfish has located its own anus close to its head so that it can excrete without emerging fully from the cucumber's protective orifice!
The scientific information is clear and broken down into digestible chunks, enlivened by well-annotated pictures - everything from mantis shrimps eating coral shrimps to frogfish camouflaged against cup corals. Predation, reproduction, camouflage, feeding and mimicry are all wonderfully explained.
And, in keeping with the mood of the times, there is a final section on reefs in danger - overfishing, cyanide, pollution etc, complete with appropriate photos, including a poignant shot of an octopus trying to cover itself with a piece of broken plastic audio-cassette.
Each chapter carries an epithet from a writer, though I'm not sure that feminist icons such as Erica Jong and Maya Angelou sit happily alongside naturalists such as Sylvia Earle or Rachel Carson. The glossary covers everything from allelopathy to zooxanthellae.
I suspect this book will become an invaluable primer for any diver who wants to look at reefs in an intelligent way.
Tim Ecott
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| Reef Life by Denise Nielsen Tackett & Larry Tackett (TFH-Microcosm, 001 732 988 8400, www.tfh.com). Hardback, 224pp, £29.95 |
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