Beyond an ID guide: "Marine Life and Natural History of the Coral Triangle"

This magnificent book does indeed go beyond species identification of the stupendous marine life found in the Coral Triangle. With not just gorgeous photos, but also clearly labelled ID bits and lots of fascinating stories about the plants and animals in our part of the oceans.

I'm so grateful to the kind authors Lee Goldman and Ethan Daniels for letting me be a part of this treasure, and sending me a copy of it too!


This morning in my snail mail box, I found a signed copy of  Marine Life and Natural History of the Coral Triangle. My day is made!

As explained in the beginning of the book, it is not just a guide to marine species identification, but also a guide to marine ecology. Many organisms in the book have specific stories and essays. I particularly love the labelled photos. Before the many glorious photos and factsheets of fishes there is a nicely labelled photo so we can figure out all those fins. There's lots of fish stories about how frogfishes fish for fish, and fishy 'turf wars' and more.

And who doesn't love nudis? Especially nudis in love. The photos are gorgeous. And I learned more about nudi redproduction, and defences too.

Labelled nudi parts, very useful for nudi noobs.

Snails also  have tricky bits that are well explained. Now I understand snail descriptions a lot better. And also learned about the ecological role of snails.

Flatworms, often confused for nudis. With a fascinating story on "the benefits of having (or not having) worms".

There's lots of corals too, once again with tricky ID bits clearly pointed out in the photos. Also stories about the fierce and constant battles among corals. how corals deal with extreme low tides, about coral bleaching and more. There also lots of other chapters with more stories on all the interesting and important organisms including seaweeds, seagrasses and mangroves! I am learning so much from this great book.

I am so grateful to be included in this magnificent book simply for my little boring photo of the 'sotong' bone (cuttlefish bone). For the wonderful chapter entitled "Beachcombing 101 - Common treasures on the sand". I learned all kinds of things here including how some beaches in the Coral Triangle are pink!

More about this awesome book on their facebook page.

Thank you Lee Goldman and Ethan Daniels for this book which I shall treasure.