BOOK REVIEW

Secret Seas: Discover Oman’s Underwater World by Paul Flandinette & Michel Claereboudt

T HE DIVER OFFICES are being pleasantly inundated with new marine-life books at the moment – last month we reviewed half a dozen and still they’re arriving.

Secret Seas is a bit different from the others in that it is unashamedly dedicated to selling a diving destination through its wildlife attractions.

The book is sponsored by OMRAN, a group that owns many of Oman’s leading hotels and is charged with developing tourism. It is claimed to be the first large-format photographic book about the country’s underwater world.

Paul Flandinette is a professional underwater photographer, author and film-maker, who has been based in Oman since 2013. Michel Claereboudt is a marine ecologist, also a photographer and has lived in Oman for 24 years.

I’m not sure exactly who did what in the book but it all hinges around 300 high-quality underwater photographs taken over the past seven years and presented with informative captions, grouped into chapters covering coral reefs, blue water, eyes, critters, nudibranchs, turtles and so on.

Because of the book’s objective there is a fair amount of background info on Oman to digest before we get stuck into the pictures.

This felt as if it might have been recycled from decades of tourism publicity material, and at times had a touch of state-speak about it – “life expectancy today is around 75 years, literacy is 95% and its citizens enjoy access to high standards of healthcare” – but I did find it clear and helpful in setting the scene.