Sensuous Seas
Sexed-up biology
Sensuous Seas is an unusual mixture of irreverent anecdotes and intriguing marine science.
Eugene Kaplan, Professor of Conservation and Ecology at Hofstra University in Long Island, USA, begins with the assertion 'that there is no such thing as a marine biologist'. And yet, this is the profession that so many of his aspiring students claim they wish to pursue.
As he points out, you may study marine zoology, or marine ichthyology, but the catch-all 'marine biologist' is a common-name term for a range of subjects, rather than an actual discipline.
Kaplan has been forced to tackle the difficult problem of keeping his students interested in topics that may at first seem boring.
He discovers that undergraduate minds 'seething with hormone-infused thoughts' will often pay closer attention if he peppers his lectures with 'a generous helping of sex'.
Kaplan has the knack of simplifying large amounts of marine biology so that it makes sense to both students and laymen alike. Discussing shark behaviour, for example, he clearly explains that the shark's brain is similar to our own: it possess a hind-brain (the medulla), a mid-brain (the cerebellum) and a fore-brain (the cerebrum).
Does this mean that sharks are intelligent rather than instinctual? Not necessarily, because while the human medulla is of modest size and controls autonomic functions like breathing, the shark medulla is proportionately much larger because it is assaulted with sensory information from the shark's lateral line and the electro-receptors in its snout.
Meanwhile, the frontal lobe - where we do most of our 'thinking' - is virtually absent in the shark. As Kaplan puts it: 'Sharks are not heavy thinkers'.
Kaplan is happy to stray from the larger charismatic sea creatures to attract an audience. He reveals that shellfish (Arthropods) are severely inhibited by their rigid exoskeleton.
I know that they moult, but I didn't know that they burst free from their shells because they secrete an anti-diuretic hormone that prevents them peeing.
When the time is right, their bodies swell with retained fluid and literally crack open their suits of armour.
A steadily prurient strain runs through this book - students are nubile, ancient Mayans use sting ray barbs to puncture their penises in religious rituals and Amazonian women rip Candiru fish from their bleeding vulvas etc, etc.
Far more appealing are the 150 line drawings by Sandy Rivkin and Susan Kaplan that beautifully depict everything from horseshoe crabs to holothurians, and nudibranchs to nurse sharks.
A comprehensive index is provided, as well as a good glossary that will allow the reader to tell their claspers from their cloaca.
Like many old professors, Kaplan is sometimes under the illusion that his jokes are very amusing. They are not: his witticisms are often laboured and trite.
But the reader who perseveres will discover that Sensuous Seas contains a wealth of stimulating and digestible information. This book is also beautifully produced and will be an attractive asset to any marine library.
Tim Ecott
Sensuous Seas, Tales of a Marine Biologist by Eugene H Kaplan, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691125600. Hardback, 288pp, £15.95
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