Posted by Frank on September 25, 2001 at 20:56:31:
In Reply to: Re: creature ID books posted by BadFish on September 25, 2001 at 14:41:26:
Paul Humann's book that Badfish recommends is a good photo guide to IDing fish. It doesn't cover creatures other than fish, though.
If you really get into reading up on species, I enjoy Milton Love's "Probably More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast." I wouldn't carry it as a field guide, but it has much more detail on behavior and lore than Humann's book.
I also have copies of Daniel W. Gotshall's books -- "Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes" and "Guide to Marine Invertebrates, Alaska to California." If you use the Humann book for fish, the second of these Gotshall books would be good for other creatures. I believe the Catalina Conservancy divers use the Gotshall books for their research diver training.
Finally, in the way of slates, I picked up a copy of "Guide to Pacific Coast Inshore Fish" from the local dive shop. Not great or exhaustive, but while you're learning it's a handy gide to a number of the more common species. Also at the bookstore at the Scripps Aquarium I found another slate called "Mac's Field Guide to Northwest Coastal Invertebrates" put out by a company in Seattle. This is the closest thing I could find for an invertebrate slate covering Southern California.
Frank