The Editor's Book Picks
The Best of the Dive Books for Serious Divers

Secret Sea
by Burt Jones, Maurine Shimlock.

Think about it: doesn't every dive photo book come with a black cover? Not Secret Sea -- this one looks a bit like the Beatles' White Album. I consider this book a classic. Another high quality underwater photo book? Yes, but it's more than that. The photos are exquisite and will be enjoyed by everyone who appreciates beauty, but this book will really thrill dive aficionados. Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock have captured the rare, the bizarre, and the coveted of the underwater world. It's not just the weird and the wild, it's the outrageously wonderful photos of the weird and wild. In addition, this book has real text -- text that paints images of marine behavior and scenes that can only come from staying in the water until algae starts to grow on your wetsuit. A lot of care and expertise went into this book, and I thoroughly enjoy its results. If I could have only one coffee table book, this would be it. Would someone please give it to me for Christmas? Hardbound, 12 x 12, 164 pages, 153 color photos. List $85.00. Order now.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sharks
by Mary Peachin.

One of the best, easily readable books on all facets of sharks. Long time diver Mary Peachin covers their anatomy, their sexual habits, their migration patterns, their hunting and feeding, and their need for protection from predators -- they have seen the enemy and it is us. Great for beginning divers. Softbound, 334 pages, $13.27.

The Sharkwatchers Handbook: A Guide to Sharks and Where to See Them
by Mark Carwardine and Ken Watterson:

Not only covers much about the habits and activities of sharks, but also it provides good ideas about photographing them. Best of all, they describe twenty-five shark species in detail, and devote more than half the book to a discussion, maps and description of 267 worldwide sites where divers can encounter sharks from land based of liveaboard operations. Hardbound, 288 pages, $17.47

If you're headed south out of San Diego, Fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific
by Gerald R. Allen, D. Ross Robertson, is the fish guide you need.

With 324 photo-packed pages covering 680 species of sharks and sailfish, wrasses and razorfish, pipefish and pearlfish, this is the ultimate ID book for the Baja, Costa Rica, the Galapagos, and the Sea of Cortez. Sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute Drs. Gerald Allen and Ross Robertson took years to produce this definitive volume that describes and comments on the remarkable behavior of these critters. Hardbound, $85.

Diving Science: Essential Physiology for Medicine and Divers
by Michael Strauss & Igor Aksenov.

A superb book for serious students of scuba diving. Two hyperbaric physicians – Michael B. Strauss, MD, and Igor V. Aksenov – write in depth about such topics as adaptation in blood and muscle tissue to improve oxygen carrying and storage, meeting the challenge of the cold water environment, psychological and physiological problems associated with descent, being on the bottom, and ascent, and much more. While written with the lay reader in mind, there's plenty of science supporting every conceivable bit of diving science. This 394 page paperback.. You can order this book through us, and we will share the profit to preserve coral reefs. Paperback, Amazon.com price: $19.01.

Watching Fishes: Understanding Coral Reef Fish Behavior
by Roberta Wilson, James Q. Wilson.

Your buddies can probably name the reef fish, but read this volume and you can explain what those critters are actually doing -- and why. This fascinating book describes why and how fish change color, how they smell and socialize, the difference between day and night behavior, even how damsels cultivate algae patches -- which is why they attach you when you fin by. Watching Fishes, Understanding Coral and Reef Fish Behavior is written for divers, not scientists, by Roberta and James Q. Wilson. They describe in lively nonfiction prose the behavior of basslets to blennies, clownfish to crinoids, damsels to drumfish. Perfect for between-dive reference. Paperback, 6x9, 274 pages.

A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer
by David C. Powell, Sylvia A. Earle

(University of California Press/Monterey Bay Aquarium, 2001). Here's a new book with a slant on the underwater world like no other: the adventures of a marine biologist in search of critters to populate the tanks of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Marine World of the Pacific, and other scientific displays. The author, David Powell, began his collecting career when at five years old, after going fishing for the first time, he brought home a fish he caught and slept with it under his pillow. His career culminated by serving as curator of the Monterey Bay Aquarium for nearly 20 years.

When Powell started diving, he used longjohns to keep warm. He made his first underwater light from a used sealed beam automobile headlight connected to a surface battery for power. No depth gauge; no BCD; no submersible pressure gauge. Powell describes how public aquariums set up displays, collect the animals, bring them home, and how they keep them alive and display them. Yet the best part is his description of the many journeys he takes to dive and collect fish, up and down the coast of California and Mexico, hunting the Coelacanth in Africa, searching for flashlight fish with John McCosker and joining Sylvia Earle in a critter search. Indeed a delightful read. 352 pages, $29.95 list.

Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria
by Kevin F. McMurray.

Journalist Kevin McMurray kicks off with the story of a 1985 expedition to the 250-foot-deep wreck, the Mt. Everest of diving. A seasoned deep diver named John Ormsby, caught up in the fever of salvaging prized first class china from deep within the ship's carcass, gets himself hopelessly tangled in a mass of electric cables. Despite heroic attempts to save him, Ormsby's shipmates eventually have to dive back down to free his body with bolt cutters. It's a chilling tale, complete with haunting photos and quotes from the other divers. McMurray alternates tales of similar tragedies with stories about the ship and the divers who have become obsessed with exploring her. The book is a compelling read -- a dozen fatal dives are described, as well as firsthand accounts of the author's own visits to the Doria -- and tackles the history and theories of technical diving, and the pissing contests between the small cadre of skippers and crewmen who have traveled to the Doria. Order through us, get Amazon.coms best price (currently $18.87) and a good hunk of the profit will be donated to preserve coral reefs.

The NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science
by James T. Joiner.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has produced its all new Fourth Edition of the NOAA Diving Manual, which was last published in 1991. The official manual is published in full color, with 688 coated pages, and is the most detailed diving reference book available. Written in lay language, more than 100 authors and reviewers, selected from experts in recreational, commercial, military, scientific, and research diving, address the complex issues involved in today's diving. They cover all aspects of diving, including new gear, operational techniques, and details to help the diver dive safely. The technologies of rebreathers and mixed gas diving, including nitrox and oxygen are included; diving physics, physiology, decompression, and diving medicine have been updated to reflect recent development. The NOAA Nitrox Tables and the Nitrox Diving Procedures allow deeper and/or longer bottom times to increase diver efficiency when using nitrox, without affecting safety or increasing decompression time. Every serious diver needs one complete reference book, and this is it. $79.50 list price.

Blue Water Hunting and Freediving
by Terry Maas

is a remarkable book of photos and text of the freedivers who hang at 30 feet to hunt tuna and marlin, sailfish and wahoo. I don't spear, but I admire the courage and skill of these breathhold hunters. Great stories of adventure, danger, shark attacks, hunts, and the encounters of prey and predators. Author and oral surgeon Terry Maas, who in one photo is dwarfed by the 398-pound bluefin he shot, is a five-time national spearfishing champion. Plenty of full-color hunt photos. Exciting and unusual -- a great book for your coffee table. Hardbound, 200 pages, $39.95.

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Complete List of Diving Books

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