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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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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. |
 Blue
Wilderness by Ron Taylor (Photographer), Valerie
Taylor. Aussie dive celebrities, Ron and Valerie
Taylor, have produced a beautiful volume commemorating their years of
discovery with the sharks of the South Pacific. In Blue Wilderness, these
pioneers of the chainmail suit discuss their adventures in cinema (Blue
Water, White Death; Jaws), the attacks on Valerie, up-close encounters
with the Great White, experiments with shark repellents, adventures with
the Potato Cod, etc. More than 100 superb photographs and riveting text
make this a superb gift. Hardbound, 10" x 12" 160 pages. List
$75, discounted 30%. Order now. |
Song for the Blue Ocean by Carl Safina. One of my favorite foods, the wild Pacific Salmon, is now on the endangered list and I am mad. While it doesn't help how I feel, Carl Safina's book does clarify for me the difficulties and complexities of managing the world's fisheries. Safina travels, dives and interviews fisher folk on both U. S. Coast's and the "Far Pacific". During this experience he uses his scientific skills as well as political analysis to indicate that unregulated global commerce has led to a drastic depletion in the world's fisheries. However, he also shows that in some cases there have been slight increases and this is encouraging. His position is, if we understand what fish and other wildlife need we can then manage our other resources to minimize damage. In 1984 a U. S. Fish Commission report to Congress told of a large decrease in the Salmon harvest but nothing was done about it. Perhaps Safina's work will help us understand the problem and our role in it. Hard cover, 458 pages, $21.00 |
 Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
by Gary KinderI enjoy reading about sunken treasure. Clive Cussler has led me on many imaginary dives with fantastic equipment. Kinder's book is just as exciting but is real. Drawing from newspaper reports and discovered diaries Kinder introduces us to a few of the passengers on the SS CENTRAL AMERICA which sank in a hurricane in 1857. This disaster took over 400 lives and 21 tons of gold, which has a present value of $1` billion. Tommy Thompson, an engineer from Ohio finds the wreck 130 years later in 8,000 feet of water. In three years of hard work the treasure is recovered. What he and his group go through and how they work at 8,000 feet kept me turning the pages; and I didn't miss Dirk one little bit. Hard cover, 507 pages, $19.25. Paperback, 560 pages, $11.20. |
 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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| How to Photograph Underwater by Norbert Wu. Underwater photography - what to use, how to use it, what to carry, and how to maintain it, Norbert Wu's How to Photograph Underwater tells it all, and has an extensive section on how to sell them after you've taken them. Wouldn't it be nice if your photos would help pay for your trip? Paperback, color plates, 7 x 9, 118 pages. | The Manual of Underwater Photography
by Decouet , Green. Just about any question you
could think to ask about photography is answered in the Manual of Underwater
Photography by Andrew Green and Heinz-Gert de Couet of Hackett, Australia.
It covers the usual topics - extension tubes, natural-light photography,
strobe power, guide numbers, etc. - but is especially useful on subjects
that don't get treated systematically elsewhere. A chapter on film discusses
differences between Ektachrome, Kodachrome, and Fujichrome, and why professional
films are generally not suitable. Another, on strobe photography, has
a wealth of information on producing the kind of lighting effects you
need for winning photographs. The Manual covers split-level and wreck
photography, underwater modeling, night photography, fish portraits, and
plankton photography. There are 74 excellent color photographs, most with
technical information. As an amateur photographer who's never quite sure
how to get the best shot, I'm enthusiastic about this book. It has just
about all the information I'll ever need. Whether I can ever apply it
is another story. Hardbound, 7 x 10, 394 pages. |
| Diving and Subaquatic Medicine by Drs. Carl Edmonds, Christopher Lowry, and John Pennefather, is the most advanced and informative book on clinical diving medicine. Written for doctors and paramedics, it belongs in the library of every serious diver. Its 566 pages cover diving fatalities, the female diver, psychological problems, long-term diving disorders, hearing loss and vertigo, cardiac disease, bends, embolisms, animal injuries, emergency first aid, and more. Paperback, $54.95. |  Fire
in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean by
Osha Gray Davidson. Scientists
and divers see tumors on green turtles, first in Hawaii, then Florida,
then elsewhere. While the tumors at first seem superficial and can
be removed, they soon spread into the turtles organs . . . Turtle
populations plummet. And the race begins to find the cause? What's
in the water? Why aren't fish seemingly affected? What does this
portend for our seas, as the problem expands and continues today.
Journalist Osha Gray Davidson gives us an inside look at the Cayman
turtle farms -- and the history of Cayman's turtles and turtle fishing
since Columbus' time -- and dives with turtles at Maui's Turtle House.
He tells us what was behind the big Caribbean sea urchin die off
a decade ago, what's happening in the dying waters of California's
Monterrey Bay, and Alaska's sea cow slaughters. Davidson's keen eye
produces a marine biologist's thriller for the lay reader, while
touching on plenty of topics dear to a diver's heart.. An extremely
well written, informative and suspenseful book, you'll have a hard
time putting it down. Fire in the Turtle House is available
here, which will deliver you Amazon.com's best prices and send
a hunk of the profit directly to the Coral Reef Alliance. The current
price is $18.20 (336 pages, hardbound). |
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 the Coral Reef Alliance.
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 The
NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology, Fourth Edition
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.
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Looking for something else? Find books on virtually anything about diving at Amazon.com |
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