HOME OR AWAY WITH EUROPEAN SHARKS

Field Guide to Sharks, Rays & Chimaeras of Europe and the Mediterranean By David A Ebert & Marc Dando

AFIELD GUIDE - a portable illustrated manual for identifying natural objects, flora, or fauna. You take it with you on a trip to identify your sightings without delay.

I struggle to think of trips on which a leisure diver would be lucky enough to see more than one or two of the (incredible) 146 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras that I now realise live in seas accessible from the UK, and feel the need to identify them instantly.

If I saw a chimaera on a dive I think I’d be excited enough not to worry about whether it was a sicklefin or rabbitfish version until I got home.

But it doesn’t matter if this book never accompanies you on your travels, because it’s just a great thing to have on your bookshelf.

As I might just have mentioned before, Wild Nature Press publications tend to be works to drool over (though don’t, it wrinkles the pages).

They’re designed and produced to a glossy level way beyond the minimum required, far too good to allow to get dog-eared on a boat.

And nobody, it seems, produces better marine-life scientific illustrations than Marc Dando, whose work can be admired here.

Author David Ebert, programme director of the Pacific Shark Research Centre, knows his elasmobranchs and, while this is a reference book, has a clear and authoritative style.

This is one comprehensive guide. Species found from Scandinavia and Iceland to the Canary Islands and Med via the Black Sea are illustrated from different angles, with annotations and separate details of features such as dorsal fins also pictured, plus distribution maps.