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A portion of the profits from any books
ordered
will be donated to The Coral
Reef Alliance.
Prices indicated below are valid at the time of posting, though Amazon.com may change them.
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Perhaps the greatest gathering of great white sharks in the world is at the Farallon islands, 26 miles from San Francisco. Researchers have tracked and studied them for years and at least one diver still collects sea urchins in the midst of their gatherings. Journalist Susan Casey lived on these barren islands to write a fascinating, awe-struck account of the sharks, their amazing behavior, their killing strategies, their long distance travels, and life with the researchers. Click on this Undercurrent link to purchase the 304-page, hardbound, The Devil's Teeth at Amazon.com's best price, and all our proceeds will go to coral reef conservation. |
On October 8, 2001, Peter Hughes Wave Dancer capsized during Hurricane Iris, killing seventeen American divers and three local residents. Moored next to the Wave Dancer, the Belize Aggressor, weathered the storm. Aboard the Aggressor was Joe Burnworth, who after the tragedy spent many months interviewing participants and researching the story, to produce this well-written yet chilling account of a tragedy that could have -- and should have -- been prevented. Opportunities arose for the Captain to head to shore, to disembark his passengers, to save his ship, but he dallied too long, his cavalier attitude getting him deeper in trouble. The crew argues, the divers are told not to worry, and eventually the Dancer reaches its last refuge in Big Creek Harbor. Burnworth is at his best describing the fury of the storm and the tragedy itself - the panicking crew, lines ripping from the dock, unsecured heavy equipment sliding across the deck, a 140-mile/hour wind and a 14-foot storm surge ramming the boat, and passengers slammed off walls in the salon, then struggling to survive as the Dancer capsizes, quickly filling with water. Every diver ought to read this book, not just for the story's power, but for the lessons to be learned.
224-page, hardbound. Click here to order. |
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Sharks of the World: The first field guide that covers all known shark species. This well-produced 368 page book has 125 full-color illustrations for fast identification, with more than 500 additional drawings illustrating physical features, as well as details of size, habitat, behavior, and biology. Published in April, it's a must for all shark watchers. Purchase it at www.undercurrent.org and you'll get a discounted price and the profits will go to coral reef preservation. 480 pages; list price $29.95; order now and pay only $19.77. |
It's "Jaws" meets "The Blair Witch Project" when a vacationing couple on a scuba diving expedition accidentally gets left behind and must fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. The movie, directed by Chris Kentis, features unknown actors and was filmed on a shoestring budget, sans camera tricks or mechanical man-eaters. The circling sharks you see are … real! "Open Water" was inspired by a real-life account reported in the pages of Undercurrent. Order now and you not only get the best price Amazon has to offer, but 100% of the profits go to benefit coral reefs. |
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A book so enthralling that I couldn't put it down, The Last Dive, A Father and Son's Fatal Descent in the Ocean's Depths, is a must read for any serious diver. Bernie Chowdhury, the founder of Immersed; The International Technical Diving Magazine, has written a haunting tale about Chris Rouse and his son, Chrissy, only 18 years apart in age and locked in a sophomoric relationship that played itself out every day and in every dive. Their maniacal devotion to diving leads them into more and more complex dives, progressing from Pennsylvania quarries to Caribbean reefs, to Florida caverns and caves, and to Atlantic wrecks, all in four years. Chowdhury's research leads him on his own voyage of self discovery, as he learns painful lessons about what diving, in the context of his life, means to him. He also tells how sport diving metamorphosed into technical diving as adventurers unsatisfied with look/see dives to 130 feet, push into extreme conditions of deep caves and wrecks. The Last Dive is a grand adventure, a remarkable book, a page turner. |
Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times, says that "Kurson's new book features undersea thrills, a gripping mystery, incredible discoveries, true-blue friendship, life-or-death crises, and history unfolding before the reader's eyes. ... Written with great you-are-there intensity and dynamic verve." "It is one thing, wreck divers will tell you, to slither in near-total darkness through a shipwreck's twisted, broken mazes, each room a potential trap of swirling silt and collapsing structure," Mr. Kurson writes with typical brio. "It is another to do so without knowing that someone did it before you and lived." A U-boat discovered at 230 feet off of New Jersey in 1991 is the setting for this thrilling adventure, where divers on compressed air fight narcosis, ripping currents, bad visibility - and themselves. Perhaps the best dive adventure ever, this book is so compelling that Hollywood has already purchased the filming rights for $1,000,000. You can order this book through us, and we will share the profit with the Coral Reef Alliance. |
 Heal
the Ocean: Solutions for Saving our Seas: by Rod Fujita.
"Rod Fujita offers a lively look at ocean habitats and creatures, with a harrowing
description of the dangers posed by things such as pollution and overfishing.
But unlike other books on the ocean, Fujita focuses on clever and workable solutions
- and show how the ranks of ocean activists can swell to create the political
will need for meaningful change." -- Peter Benchley, author of JawsOrder Heal the Ocean through us, get Amazon.com's best price and a nice part of the profit will be donated to the Coral Reef Alliance. |
An
American Underwater Odyssey: 50 Dives in 50 States: by
Charles Ballinger. Underwater Odyssey is the story of a scuba diving
safari to every state in America. Tired of touring coral reefs, the author embarks
on a year-long quest to discover the incredible assortment of adventure diving
found in our nation's backyard. His dogged determination to follow his dreams
and explore everything from flooded missile sites to abandoned mines should be
an inspiration for any diver. Underwater Odyssey transcends the limits
of a dive guide to reveal the broader adventure that diving provides. Order
through us, get Amazon.coms best price and some of the profit will be donated
to the Coral Reef Alliance.
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Fishy
Friends: A Journey through the Coral Kingdom: by Michael
Patrick O'Neill. Fishy Friends, A Journey Through the Coral Kingdom is
a perfect way to share your passion of the underwater world with that special
child. With excellent pictures of sand divers and octopus and scorpionfish illustrating
a powerful yet entertaining conservation message, this is a great addition to
any child's library. As the picture editor of Smithsonian Magazine says, "Michael
Powell's images in Fishy Friends have a unique blend of clarity, color,
and behavior, so important to catching the interest of children, the future steward
of our planet." The clownfish images are sure to resonate with any youngster who
saw Saving Nemo. For kids, to age 12. 9x11 inches. Order
through us, get Amazon.com's best price and a good hunk of the profit will
be donated to the Coral Reef Alliance.
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Mark of the Shark, True Tales of Terror from the Deep, edited
by John Long. In this collection of 20 true tales of shark encounters from waters around the
world, John Long presents stories that evoke terror -- while celebrating
the courage of rescuers and the indomitable spirit that keeps victims
alive to tell the tale.
Champion Australian freediver Rodney Fox recounts the mother of all shark stories: his own experience being mauled while spearfishing off Adelaide, Australia in 1963. Fathoms Magazine editor Bret Gilliam recalls trying to save a dive buddy from a grisly fatal attack by not one but two oceanic whitetips 200 feet down off St. Croix. Underwater photographer Marty Snyderman recounts the emotional impact he felt, at the age of nine, while watching deep sea fishermen shoot, kill, and dump a bull shark they had reeled in off Panama City, Florida. Paperback, 224 pages published by Falcon. $10.47 |
Digital
Imaging for the Underwater Photographer: Computer Applications for Photo Enhancement
and Presentation by Jack Drafahl,
Sue Drafahl. Whether you're converting your underwater shots to digital
or shooting digital underwater or on land, this book is what you need to master
digital enhancement and presentation. Jack and Sue Drafahl, who have published
more than 500 articles, have produced this excellent book to help you master the
digital technique you need to create dazzling presentations. They cover basic
and advanced techniques in contrasting and saturating images, reducing grain,
eliminating backscatter, correcting exposure errors, modifying colors, and enhancing
those fish and people shots for truly professional quality work. This 224-page
paperback is chock full of photos explaining the computer techniques for top quality
images. Save 20% off the $39.95 list price by ordering
here and our profit from this sale or any other book you purchase will go
to the Coral Reef Alliance
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Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide
by Gerald R. Allen, Roger Steene. I was trying to pack
light for a change. Surely the Solomon Sea would have good identification books
aboard. Not so; the only book on the boat belonged to a fellow passenger. It was
one that I had not seen before, the Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide,
by two of the best fish guys around, Gerry Allen and Roger Steene. The problem
was this fellow passenger kept it in a plastic baggie most of the trip and I had
to beg to see it. Great book, good traveling size, and it covers everything from
fish, shells, marine plants, mammals, corals, and invertebrates to sea birds and
more. Now I've got my own, and it won't do you any good to beg me to borrow it.
This is one of two books that I will not travel to the Pacific without. Good for
travel to the Red Sea, East Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Andaman Sea,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Hawaii,
it has 1,800 color illustrations in a 6x8 1/2 paperback format with 378 pages.
$39.95.
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 World
Atlas of Coral Reefs by Mark D. Spalding, Corinna Ravilious,
Edmund P. Green, United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center.
If there is one book that belongs in every traveling diver's library, this is
it. The superb World Atlas of Coral Reefs has everything you want to know
about the reefs from Costa Rica and Cuba to the Coral Sea and Cayman. The information
is specific and up to date. The photos, maps and layout superb. And the price,
for this 424 page, full color, hard bound volume, is a steal at $31.50
The Atlas was released in September by the United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center to document and conserve the world's coral reefs. Clearly written with divers in mind, it's an invaluable resource for global travelers. Here's what you'll find.
For example, you can learn about pollution damage to the reefs at Providenciales and the lack of human impact, as well. Or, where extensive bleaching took place in Honduras 1998. You'll read that Milne Bay in Papua New Guineas has the most extensive reef system in that country and where, in Fiji, the bumphead parrotfish and tridachna clams will not be found, thanks to overfishing. Order now. |
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The
Wreck of the Henrietta Marie: An African-American’s Spiritual Journey to
Uncover a Sunken Slave Ship’s Past: by Michael Cottman.
When prize-winning journalist and avid scuba diver Michael Cottman participated
in an underwater expedition to survey the sunken wreck of a slave ship off the
coast of Florida, he was overwhelmed by powerful feelings of kinship and oneness
with his African ancestors. As he held in his hands the very shackles that once
had bound men, women, and children in their tortured passage from their African
homeland to America, Cottman became determined to tell their stories and the story
behind the ship that had carried them away from all they knew and loved. The Wreck
of the Henrietta Marie is a fascinating look at one man’s quest to reconstruct
the journey of a British slave ship with all the detail and accuracy available
to us at the end of the 20th century. Hardcover, 320 pages.
Order
through us and get Amazon.com's best price and a chunk of the profit will
be donated to the Coral Reef Alliance. |
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 Coral
Seas by Roger Steene. It's not
just the frightening photos of a nine-foot Bobbit worm that emerges from Philippine
rubble like a giant Phoenix (with jaws worthy of its name, it's even known to
attack divers) that makes the book a blockbuster. It's every one of the 340 photos
that show hundreds of unique critters in circumstances -- like an octopus using
a coconut shell for a carapace, or pearlfish emerging from the anus of a sea cucumber,
its host -- that only an exceptional photographer could capture. Each year one
new coffee table book stands above the rest and I have no doubt that Coral
Seas by Roger Steene is the book for 1999 -- and most likely the new millennium
as well. Steene's remarkable and beautiful photographs break new ground; indeed
25 of the critters featured are new to science, some appearing here for the first
time. Take the newly discovered mimic octopus, photographed disguising itself
as a jellyfish, a feather star, a stingray, and even a jawfish. Nudibranchs with
shrimp on their backs, cigar jellyfish in the dark of the night, rare weedy scorpionfish
-- and even a white whale, shades of Moby Dick. What a fine book to own! Hardbound
coffee table book, 272 pages, hardbound, $35.
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 Diving Cozumel, 2nd Edition ... Diving Cayman Islands ... Belize
... Bay
Islands ... Bonaire
... Diving Bermuda, 2nd Edition
... British
Virgin Islands ... Hawaii
... Micronesia
by Speck, Garoutte, Middleton, Cancelmo, Strohofer,
Lewbel, Martin, Douglass, Verdure, Rosenberg, Hanauer... No
matter where you are headed, the Aqua Quest Books covering your destination are
the only way to supplement Undercurrent's hardhitting critical information.
Each of these books describes specific dive sites, depths and location, shore
diving entries, the critters you'll see, local history and customs, places of
interests. Take one as you travel or buy one after you return for the memories.
Scores of excellent colorful pictures and maps supplement each of these 7x10 paperback
128 page books.
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Sea of Cortez Marine Animals by Daniell W. Gotshall, Daniel Gotshal. It's just the book you'll need to identify critters anywhere along Mexico's Pacific Coast, all the way to Panama. Any other ID book just doesn't cover the creatures here. Dan Gotshall, a marine biologist with 34 years research experience, has more the 250 photos of fish, corals, nudibranchs, lobsters, sea stars and other critters endemic to these waters. For each animal there are tips how to identify and where to spot it. Paper, 110 pages, $20.95 |
 Down
Time by Ed Kittrell (Editor), Casey Kittrell,
Jim Kittrell (Editor), Ed Kittrell. Dave Barry
does battle with a lobster...James Jones is awestruck in a coral cathedral...Robert
Stone faces down fear with his air running out... Clare Booth Luce discovers
the reef's true treasure...Tim Cahill tracks the zombie of the deep...James
Hamilton Patterson tries to make high frequency noises underwater by squeaking
condoms. Thirty-five passages by winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the
National Book award, novelists and journalists, explorers and film makers.
Down Time is an anthology of diving adventures, meditations and yarns
by the best writers around (You won't find Jacques Cousteau here; his
family refused reprint permission). Thrilling, funny, and original, this
is terrific writing ferreted out with careful research by Casey (an Undercurrent
correspondant) Ed, and Jim Kittrell, A thoughtful book for intelligent
divers. 264 pages, paperback, $15. Order now. |
Fatal
Depth: Deep Sea Diving, China Fever, and the Wreck of the Andrea Doria by
Joe Haberstroh. In the summers of 1998 and 1999, a 65'
dive boat from Montauk, N.Y., lost five divers in separate incidents on
the Andrea Doria – about one diver in every four trips! Diver error?
Captain error? Bad luck? A continuing, unaddressed problem? Joe Haberstroh,
a reporter for Newsday, explores each death in detail, explaining the divers’ motivations,
their training, and what happened on their fatal dives. The divers are
ordinary guys, some trained better than others, but each diving below 200
feet in search of Doria trophies. What happened on board the Seeker? What
was the Captain’s role? Could the accidents be prevented?. This is
a fascinating book any serious diver will find difficult to put down. I
read it in a day. Just published this month, it’s available through
Undercurrent’s link to Amazon.com, where a good portion of your purchase
price will be donated to the Coral Reef Alliance. Hardbound,
250 pages, $16.77 currently at Amazon. |
 Beyond
the Deep: The Deadly Descent into the World's Most Treacherous Cave by
William Stone, Barbara Am Ende, Monte Paulsen.
In 1994, in the most dangerous diving expedition ever, Dr. Bill Stone
led his team into what is probably the deepest cave complex in the
world -- Mexico's uncharted Huautla cave system. This brand new book
explores the adventure and danger that illuminate tech diver's obsession
to tackle whatever exploratory challenge they can find. At record-breaking
depths, Stone and Barbara am Ende, the team's least experienced diver
and only woman, found themselves in a life and death struggle, virtually
cut off from help. Their exceptional adventure is chronicled in 318
pages by Stone and Ende in a harrowing and heroic and page-turner. Order
now |
 Close
to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by
Mike Capuzzo, Michael Capuzzo . Like no other writer, journalist Michael
Capuzzo describes in great detail the mystical journey of a great white
shark in search of prey. How it uses its smell to detect minute amounts
of mammal urine, how it navigates with aid of the magnetic north, how the
lateral lines detect fish tails and fins, and how it homes in on a heart
beat. Nowhere have I seen a more thorough and fascinating description of
the great white. Here Capuzzo retells the story of the first shark attacks
ever in American waters, at a time when people believed sharks didn't bite
and summer sport was taking a four-mile swim off the Jersey shore. This
New York Time's Best Seller tells the true story of Jaws, every bit as
frightening, but marvelously researched and historically accurate. I couldn't
put it down. $10.47 paperback. Order
now |
Shark: Stories of Life and Death from the World's Most Dangerous Waters,
edited by Nathaniel May. May has pulled together 20 pieces of
great writing, fiction and nonfiction, inspired by one of the world's most feared and
fascinating creatures. His selections mix modern-day monster tales with works that
reflect a more complex view of this mysterious species.Arthur C. Clarke tells of pushing his luck almost too far during a surprise encounter with a 10-footer on the Great Barrier Reef. Zane Grey tries to reel in a whale shark, and learns that there are limits to his skill as a record-setting deep sea fisherman. Ernest Hemingway's description of the epic struggle from The Old Man and the Sea is also included. Other contributors include Peter Matthiessen, James Dickey, Eugenie Clark, Jack London and Peter Benchley. Paperback: 398 pages, published by Thunder's Mouth Press $12.57 |
Diving the World is a whopper of a new book by Norbert Wu, one of the world's preeminent underwater photographers. In this just-issued, 384-page book, Wu displays a gallery of fascinating images from the world's most beautiful dive location, from the well-trodden California coast to the remote outposts of Antarctica and the tropical shores of lesser known locales including the Revillagigedo Islands, Palau, and French Polynesia. Ken McAlpine's colorful and informative text provides an honest appraisal of everything a serious diver needs to know along Wu's photographic journey: the best seasons for diving, unique aspects of the geography and sea life found, popular dive destinations within a specific locale, suggestions for getting there, the best time and places for extraordinary species and behaviors, as well as topside tips. Three hundred and fifty color photographs from more than 30 locations illustrate the wonder and diversity that can be found under the sea, from frolicking sea otters to freshwater jellyfish to bad-tempered sharks and coral communities bursting with color. Wu has the unique ability to capture the mood and personality - whether whimsical or fearsome - of his subjects. This is a splendid book, a must for every serious diver and a great prize for anyone on your holiday gift list. 14x12 inches. Order through us, get Amazon.com's best price and a large chunk of the profit will be donated to the Coral Reef Alliance. |
Looking for something else? Find books on virtually anything about diving at Amazon.com |
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