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Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything
"A sprawling, ambitious underwater journey studded with fascinating tidbits." - New York Times Book Review
Wild fish hover in seas, rivers and lakes, out of sight and out of mind. But from the very first time Helen Scales immersed herself into their liquid world, she realized that fish are beautiful, mesmerizing, complex and exciting. The moment she sank down to eyeball a wild trout--the fish poised in front of her, expertly occupying the three-dimensional space in a way that she could only dream of imitating--sparked the ichthyologist within, and set in motion years of study and exploration in the fishes' unseen domain as she became a devoted fish-watcher.
In this book, Scales shares the secrets of fish, unhitching them from their reputation as cold, unknowable beasts and reinventing them as clever, emotional, singing, thoughtful creatures, and challenging readers to rethink these animals. She takes readers on an underwater journey to watch these creatures going about the hidden but glorious business of being a fish. Their way of life is radically different from our own, in part because they inhabit a buoyant, sticky fluid in which light, heat, gases and sound behave in odd ways. They've evolved many tactics to overcome these challenges, to become megastars of the life sun-aquatic. In doing so, these extraordinary animals tell us so much about the oceans and life itself. Our relationship with these scaly creatures goes much deeper than predator versus prey. Fish leave their mark on the human world.
As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals, and the seas, and to go out and appreciate the wildness and wonders of fish, whether through the glass walls of an aquarium or, better still, by gazing into the fishes' wild world and swimming through it.
Wild fish hover in seas, rivers and lakes, out of sight and out of mind. But from the very first time Helen Scales immersed herself into their liquid world, she realized that fish are beautiful, mesmerizing, complex and exciting. The moment she sank down to eyeball a wild trout--the fish poised in front of her, expertly occupying the three-dimensional space in a way that she could only dream of imitating--sparked the ichthyologist within, and set in motion years of study and exploration in the fishes' unseen domain as she became a devoted fish-watcher.
In this book, Scales shares the secrets of fish, unhitching them from their reputation as cold, unknowable beasts and reinventing them as clever, emotional, singing, thoughtful creatures, and challenging readers to rethink these animals. She takes readers on an underwater journey to watch these creatures going about the hidden but glorious business of being a fish. Their way of life is radically different from our own, in part because they inhabit a buoyant, sticky fluid in which light, heat, gases and sound behave in odd ways. They've evolved many tactics to overcome these challenges, to become megastars of the life sun-aquatic. In doing so, these extraordinary animals tell us so much about the oceans and life itself. Our relationship with these scaly creatures goes much deeper than predator versus prey. Fish leave their mark on the human world.
As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals, and the seas, and to go out and appreciate the wildness and wonders of fish, whether through the glass walls of an aquarium or, better still, by gazing into the fishes' wild world and swimming through it.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2018
60 people are currently reading
1311 people want to read
About the author
Helen Scales
24 books239 followersIn their review of my first book, Poseidon’s Steed, the Economist called me “The aptly named Helen Scales” and I guess they’re right. I do have a bit of a thing about fish (get it?).
Across the airways and in print, I’m noted for my distinctive and occasionally offbeat voice that combines a scuba diver’s devotion to exploring the oceans, a scientist’s geeky attention to detail, a conservationist’s angst about the state of the planet, and a storyteller’s obsession with words and ideas.
I have a Cambridge PhD and a monofin, I’ve drunk champagne with David Attenborough and talked seahorse sex on the Diane Rehm show. I spent four years (on and off) chasing after big fish in Borneo and another year cataloguing marine life surrounding 100 Andaman Sea islands.
These days I write books and articles, I make podcasts and radio, travel the world in search of stories, and do my best to spend as much time as I can in the sea as a scuba diver, free diver and rookie surfer. I’m a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the steering committee for the Museum of Curiosity. I’m also a proud aunt, I sew dresses, grow organic vegetables, put on high heels and dance Argentine tango, play piano, sing in the shower, and make a mess in a printmaking studio.
Across the airways and in print, I’m noted for my distinctive and occasionally offbeat voice that combines a scuba diver’s devotion to exploring the oceans, a scientist’s geeky attention to detail, a conservationist’s angst about the state of the planet, and a storyteller’s obsession with words and ideas.
I have a Cambridge PhD and a monofin, I’ve drunk champagne with David Attenborough and talked seahorse sex on the Diane Rehm show. I spent four years (on and off) chasing after big fish in Borneo and another year cataloguing marine life surrounding 100 Andaman Sea islands.
These days I write books and articles, I make podcasts and radio, travel the world in search of stories, and do my best to spend as much time as I can in the sea as a scuba diver, free diver and rookie surfer. I’m a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the steering committee for the Museum of Curiosity. I’m also a proud aunt, I sew dresses, grow organic vegetables, put on high heels and dance Argentine tango, play piano, sing in the shower, and make a mess in a printmaking studio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
July 17, 2018
There are 30,000 species of fish, making them “by far the most abundant and also the most diverse of the vertebrates.” Ninety-six percent are teleosts, the most recent branch to split off the evolutionary tree, characterized by full backbones and stiff tails. This book tells you everything you could ever want to know about fish: their use of colorful markings as camouflage; their reliance on bioluminescence, electricity and/or venom; what they eat; how they breathe; what extinct/fossil fish tell us about what fish used to be like; and so on. Evidence has emerged that fish can feel pain and exhibit signs of intelligence like learning and cooperative predation. They also have fantastic names, like Picasso Triggerfish and Sarcastic Fringeheads.
Unfortunately, at times (especially in Chapter 2) the book seems like nothing more than a list of facts: ‘here’s an interesting fish,’ ‘here’s another interesting fish,’ etc. Scales, an English marine biologist, inserts occasional snippets of autobiographical material about her travels and dives, but these feel out of place and insufficient. The same goes for the brief introductions to other figures from the history of fish research, like Robert Guppy (for whom guppies are indeed named) and Eugenie Clark, a Japanese-American shark and pufferfish researcher. However, I enjoyed the one- or two-page retellings of myths about fish interspersed with the scientific chapters, including the earliest version of the Cinderella story from ninth-century China.
I finished reading Scales’s Spirals in Time earlier this year, and was a bit disappointed with this new book by comparison. Her book on shells is better suited to a general reader and more successfully conveys the delightful strangeness of sea life while incorporating information on its cultural relevance and relationship with humans. At a time when oceans are in crisis, I expected the author to be much more outspoken about the dangers of pollution and overfishing. Her passion for fish is undeniable, but readers should have a considerable preexisting interest in marine life before deciding to join her for this exhaustive survey.
Unfortunately, at times (especially in Chapter 2) the book seems like nothing more than a list of facts: ‘here’s an interesting fish,’ ‘here’s another interesting fish,’ etc. Scales, an English marine biologist, inserts occasional snippets of autobiographical material about her travels and dives, but these feel out of place and insufficient. The same goes for the brief introductions to other figures from the history of fish research, like Robert Guppy (for whom guppies are indeed named) and Eugenie Clark, a Japanese-American shark and pufferfish researcher. However, I enjoyed the one- or two-page retellings of myths about fish interspersed with the scientific chapters, including the earliest version of the Cinderella story from ninth-century China.
I finished reading Scales’s Spirals in Time earlier this year, and was a bit disappointed with this new book by comparison. Her book on shells is better suited to a general reader and more successfully conveys the delightful strangeness of sea life while incorporating information on its cultural relevance and relationship with humans. At a time when oceans are in crisis, I expected the author to be much more outspoken about the dangers of pollution and overfishing. Her passion for fish is undeniable, but readers should have a considerable preexisting interest in marine life before deciding to join her for this exhaustive survey.
May 8, 2018
Every now and then I take a break from reading genre fiction and reconnect with mathematics, science and engineering. On vary rare occasions I leave my comfort zone and head into the world of biology and nature.
I'm an engineer and mathematician. Biology is a foreign world to me that I struggle to understand. As such it is a testament to the quality of Helen Scales' writing that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, racing through it in a few days, learning as I went.
Unsurprisingly this is a book all about fish. It shouldn't be interesting but it really is. We learn about the different groups of fish from an evolutionary standpoint, where the groups split off from each other and when. We consider what makes a fish a fish and whether there is really such a thing anyway.
There are chapters about colour, luminescence and phosphorescence, about what fish eat and how they hunt, be it by sight, by detecting pressure waves or by using electromagnetism. We learn about toxic and venomous fish, sex changing fish, fish that work for a living, long dead fish and those thought to be extinct, but aren't quite. We learn the different ways fish hear, how some fish sing and other communicate by farting.
Interspersed throughout this book are personal observations from an academic career spent observing fish in their natural habitat and accounts of both historical and recent research into all manner of things piscine.
I didn't think I needed a book about fish. I was wrong. This is a very enjoyable and highly rewarding read.
I'm an engineer and mathematician. Biology is a foreign world to me that I struggle to understand. As such it is a testament to the quality of Helen Scales' writing that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, racing through it in a few days, learning as I went.
Unsurprisingly this is a book all about fish. It shouldn't be interesting but it really is. We learn about the different groups of fish from an evolutionary standpoint, where the groups split off from each other and when. We consider what makes a fish a fish and whether there is really such a thing anyway.
There are chapters about colour, luminescence and phosphorescence, about what fish eat and how they hunt, be it by sight, by detecting pressure waves or by using electromagnetism. We learn about toxic and venomous fish, sex changing fish, fish that work for a living, long dead fish and those thought to be extinct, but aren't quite. We learn the different ways fish hear, how some fish sing and other communicate by farting.
Interspersed throughout this book are personal observations from an academic career spent observing fish in their natural habitat and accounts of both historical and recent research into all manner of things piscine.
I didn't think I needed a book about fish. I was wrong. This is a very enjoyable and highly rewarding read.
July 5, 2018
Once again Dr. Scales provides a interesting, well written, and engaging look at life below the seas. Similar to Spirals in Time, this book takes a vignette look at marine biodiversity, but this time instead of mollusks we are treated to explorations of a more ichthyological bent.
I was very excited to read this book as I teach several college level courses on fish and conservation and I'm always on the look out for books to complement existing primary material. In Eye of the Shoal, I was not disappointed in the breadth and depth of the information provided. Covering several topics in wonderful detail, I enjoyed the swim around the oceans and streams learning about bioluminescence, sex-changing, neurobiology, and ecology. This book will be a wonderful addition to my curriculum as it written in a conversational fashion, but delivers the kinds of "SO COOL!" moments that really help hook students into the material.
In summary, this is a very well written book that does a fantastic job of sharing some of the many amazing stories that fish have to tell. It is appropriate for the general reader yet has enough detail that even specialists will find one or two cool new facts to share the next time they're in class (or on the docks). I am glad that I got this book and once again it leaves me anxious for Dr. Scales' next contribution.
I was very excited to read this book as I teach several college level courses on fish and conservation and I'm always on the look out for books to complement existing primary material. In Eye of the Shoal, I was not disappointed in the breadth and depth of the information provided. Covering several topics in wonderful detail, I enjoyed the swim around the oceans and streams learning about bioluminescence, sex-changing, neurobiology, and ecology. This book will be a wonderful addition to my curriculum as it written in a conversational fashion, but delivers the kinds of "SO COOL!" moments that really help hook students into the material.
In summary, this is a very well written book that does a fantastic job of sharing some of the many amazing stories that fish have to tell. It is appropriate for the general reader yet has enough detail that even specialists will find one or two cool new facts to share the next time they're in class (or on the docks). I am glad that I got this book and once again it leaves me anxious for Dr. Scales' next contribution.
June 27, 2022
„Ryby mają głos” to kilkaset stron fascynującej wyprawy pod wodę, ale też przez historię i mity. Jednocześnie to podróż, w której autorka nawet na chwilę nie zapomina, że musimy chronić ryby, bo czymże jest wymieranie tych, od których pochodzimy, jak nie zbrodnią na nas samych.
Wisława Szymborska po przeczytaniu książki Kazimierza A. Dobrowolskiego, „Jak pływają zwierzęta” przyznała, że sięgnęła po nią „tylko dla ryb, o których moja wiedza ziała dotychczas horrendalnymi lukami”. Moja wiedza o rybach również nie była przesadnie rozbudowana, a przecież wiedza pozornie niepotrzebna bywa zaskakująco przyjemna w przyswajaniu. I czasem potrzebna. Dlatego sięgnąłem po rybią okładkę książki z rybami w tytule. Ale wcześniej przypomniał mi się wiersz.
Narratorka pięknie przełożonego przez Stanisława Barańczaka wiersza amerykańskiej poetki Elizabeth Bishop, „Ryba” łapie wędką na haczyk żyjące w wodzie zwierzę. Ryba - pisze Bishop - „zwisała pochrząkującym/ ciężarem, sponiewierana,/ czcigodna, nieładna”.
Dziwność stworzonka sprawia, że narratorka przygląda mu się uważnie, powoli oswajając i rozpoznając jej piękno. Czy jednak musimy wyłowić rybę, żeby odkryć jak wspaniałym, wykraczającym poza nasze normy estetyczne zwierzęciem jest pływający w rzece, morzu czy jeziorze kręgowiec?
Książka Helen Scales pozwala nam poznać świat podwodnych istot bez wbijania w nie haczyków, zarzucania wędek, nurkowania z butlą tlenową. Zamiast przyrządów mamy słowa. I one powinny wystarczyć, by przekonać nas, że ryby zaiste są stworzeniami niezwykłymi.
Więcej tutaj - https://www.empik.com/empikultura/ksi...
Wisława Szymborska po przeczytaniu książki Kazimierza A. Dobrowolskiego, „Jak pływają zwierzęta” przyznała, że sięgnęła po nią „tylko dla ryb, o których moja wiedza ziała dotychczas horrendalnymi lukami”. Moja wiedza o rybach również nie była przesadnie rozbudowana, a przecież wiedza pozornie niepotrzebna bywa zaskakująco przyjemna w przyswajaniu. I czasem potrzebna. Dlatego sięgnąłem po rybią okładkę książki z rybami w tytule. Ale wcześniej przypomniał mi się wiersz.
Narratorka pięknie przełożonego przez Stanisława Barańczaka wiersza amerykańskiej poetki Elizabeth Bishop, „Ryba” łapie wędką na haczyk żyjące w wodzie zwierzę. Ryba - pisze Bishop - „zwisała pochrząkującym/ ciężarem, sponiewierana,/ czcigodna, nieładna”.
Dziwność stworzonka sprawia, że narratorka przygląda mu się uważnie, powoli oswajając i rozpoznając jej piękno. Czy jednak musimy wyłowić rybę, żeby odkryć jak wspaniałym, wykraczającym poza nasze normy estetyczne zwierzęciem jest pływający w rzece, morzu czy jeziorze kręgowiec?
Książka Helen Scales pozwala nam poznać świat podwodnych istot bez wbijania w nie haczyków, zarzucania wędek, nurkowania z butlą tlenową. Zamiast przyrządów mamy słowa. I one powinny wystarczyć, by przekonać nas, że ryby zaiste są stworzeniami niezwykłymi.
Więcej tutaj - https://www.empik.com/empikultura/ksi...
March 21, 2022
Lots of fish trivia, little of which is remarkable. The book is too broad and shallow.
> male Guppies have uneven patches of color on either side of their body – their patterns are not symmetrical. While dancing for a female, trying to convince her to mate with him, a male will show her only his better, more colorful side. … Females probably evolved a preference for rare colors because it helps them avoid inbreeding and mating with close relatives. As an upshot, Guppy populations cycle through colors, keeping a mix of many tints and maintaining their reputation as ‘rainbowfish’.
> The parts of Lake Victoria with clearer waters are home to the most cichlid species, whose colors remain bright and distinct. In these areas females can still see the males’ colors and pick their own species to mate with. But the murkier the water, the more drab the fish and the fewer species present. Cichlids are in peril not simply because they’re hunted by introduced Nile Perch but because they’re having a hard time seeing each other’s colors. Gloomy waters are interfering with cichlid mating habits.
> Cookie Cutter Sharks have blue glowing bellies. Frederick Debell Bennett caught these half-meter (20in), spindle-shaped sharks on his 1830s whaling voyage and described their light as giving them ‘a truly ghastly and terrific appearance.’ He also noted around their necks a dark, non-glowing band, tapered at both ends. This, he thought, might look like the shadow of a smaller fish. In this way, Bennett proposed, Cookie Cutters might lure in larger, faster animals – dolphins, whales and tuna. When the hunters get close, expecting to find food, they instead lose a chunk of flesh to the Cookie Cutter.
> Pacific and Atlantic Herring are far less furious fish. They seem to communicate with gentle streams of bubbles trickling from their swim bladder and out through their anus. Emanating from the trails of bubbles come pulses of sound, up to seven seconds long, which researchers named Fast Repetitive Ticks or FRTs for short. Film footage shot in huge aquarium tanks in the dark with infrared cameras shows young herring swimming around in loose shoals, making bubbles. With a screen across the top, blocking their access to the air, the herring quieten down after a few nights, probably because they can’t refill their swim bladders by gulping air from the surface into their stomachs, and they run out of farts. One idea is that they use bubbles to maintain contact with their shoal-mates at night.
> male Guppies have uneven patches of color on either side of their body – their patterns are not symmetrical. While dancing for a female, trying to convince her to mate with him, a male will show her only his better, more colorful side. … Females probably evolved a preference for rare colors because it helps them avoid inbreeding and mating with close relatives. As an upshot, Guppy populations cycle through colors, keeping a mix of many tints and maintaining their reputation as ‘rainbowfish’.
> The parts of Lake Victoria with clearer waters are home to the most cichlid species, whose colors remain bright and distinct. In these areas females can still see the males’ colors and pick their own species to mate with. But the murkier the water, the more drab the fish and the fewer species present. Cichlids are in peril not simply because they’re hunted by introduced Nile Perch but because they’re having a hard time seeing each other’s colors. Gloomy waters are interfering with cichlid mating habits.
> Cookie Cutter Sharks have blue glowing bellies. Frederick Debell Bennett caught these half-meter (20in), spindle-shaped sharks on his 1830s whaling voyage and described their light as giving them ‘a truly ghastly and terrific appearance.’ He also noted around their necks a dark, non-glowing band, tapered at both ends. This, he thought, might look like the shadow of a smaller fish. In this way, Bennett proposed, Cookie Cutters might lure in larger, faster animals – dolphins, whales and tuna. When the hunters get close, expecting to find food, they instead lose a chunk of flesh to the Cookie Cutter.
> Pacific and Atlantic Herring are far less furious fish. They seem to communicate with gentle streams of bubbles trickling from their swim bladder and out through their anus. Emanating from the trails of bubbles come pulses of sound, up to seven seconds long, which researchers named Fast Repetitive Ticks or FRTs for short. Film footage shot in huge aquarium tanks in the dark with infrared cameras shows young herring swimming around in loose shoals, making bubbles. With a screen across the top, blocking their access to the air, the herring quieten down after a few nights, probably because they can’t refill their swim bladders by gulping air from the surface into their stomachs, and they run out of farts. One idea is that they use bubbles to maintain contact with their shoal-mates at night.
September 28, 2024
We’ve all heard that goldfish only have a seven second memory, so that provided the bowl they live in takes longer than that to circumnavigate, every journey is a journey of discovery. But that, according to the wonderfully named Dr Scales, is a myth – along with so much else we thought we knew about fish. The science of fish cognition and sentience is revealing that “fish live complex, intelligent and nuanced lives, and evidence is stacking up that they can suffer, get scared, and feel pain.”
Naturally, this raises ethical questions about their treatment. I like eating fish and won’t stop doing so but these questions are worth considering. Even if we don’t go as far as the absurdity – at least to me – of jailing someone for swallowing a live goldfish and putting a video of it online – as happened in England in 2017. (The convicted man said “I didn’t think eating a fish could cause this much trouble”).
There are no photographs or coloured illustrations here, but each chapter is prefaced with some rather wonderful annotated line drawings. I enjoyed this book and learned many fascinating things I didn’t know, although at times I was a trifle fatigued by the accumulation of facts. No doubt a dedicated icthyologist would find it too thin, whereas those with only a passing interest in fish might find it too dense. For me, the most fascinating parts were those dealing with the benthic abyss. I am not quite sure why this should appeal so much; perhaps because I sometimes have days of autumnal melancholia when I can say with T S Eliot -
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
Naturally, this raises ethical questions about their treatment. I like eating fish and won’t stop doing so but these questions are worth considering. Even if we don’t go as far as the absurdity – at least to me – of jailing someone for swallowing a live goldfish and putting a video of it online – as happened in England in 2017. (The convicted man said “I didn’t think eating a fish could cause this much trouble”).
There are no photographs or coloured illustrations here, but each chapter is prefaced with some rather wonderful annotated line drawings. I enjoyed this book and learned many fascinating things I didn’t know, although at times I was a trifle fatigued by the accumulation of facts. No doubt a dedicated icthyologist would find it too thin, whereas those with only a passing interest in fish might find it too dense. For me, the most fascinating parts were those dealing with the benthic abyss. I am not quite sure why this should appeal so much; perhaps because I sometimes have days of autumnal melancholia when I can say with T S Eliot -
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
September 22, 2019
Als je dit boek leest wil je een aquarium.
March 14, 2020
Great illustrations. That's about it.
August 3, 2020
TITLE: Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything
AUTHOR: Helen Scales
PUBLICATION DATE: 2020
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9781472936820
____________________
REVIEW:
This book provides a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the fishy world, from fish colours and illumination, what they see, to venoms, poisons, how and what they eat, their evolution, the sounds fish make and if they can think and feel (apparently this is an issue!!?). In addition, Helen Scales provides personal observations from her lifelong passion of fish watching, as well as interesting historical anecdotes and more recent fishy research. Each chapter is also followed by a fishy folk tale. The writing style is natural and easy to understand. This is a beautifully written and enjoyable book that celebrates the diversity of fish but minimizes the doom and gloom (e.g. conservation, pollution and over-fishing).
OTHER BOOKS:
- Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods by Danna Staaf
- What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins by Jonathan Balcombe
- Venomous: How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry by Christie Wilcox
- Restless Creatures: The Story of Life in Ten Movements by Matt Wilkinson
- Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales
- Horseshoe Crab: Biography of a Survivor by Anthony D. Fredericks
- Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter by Ellen Prager
- Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams
- Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality by Helen Scales
- Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin by Samuel T. Turvey
- Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur by Carl Safina
AUTHOR: Helen Scales
PUBLICATION DATE: 2020
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9781472936820
____________________
REVIEW:
This book provides a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the fishy world, from fish colours and illumination, what they see, to venoms, poisons, how and what they eat, their evolution, the sounds fish make and if they can think and feel (apparently this is an issue!!?). In addition, Helen Scales provides personal observations from her lifelong passion of fish watching, as well as interesting historical anecdotes and more recent fishy research. Each chapter is also followed by a fishy folk tale. The writing style is natural and easy to understand. This is a beautifully written and enjoyable book that celebrates the diversity of fish but minimizes the doom and gloom (e.g. conservation, pollution and over-fishing).
OTHER BOOKS:
- Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods by Danna Staaf
- What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins by Jonathan Balcombe
- Venomous: How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry by Christie Wilcox
- Restless Creatures: The Story of Life in Ten Movements by Matt Wilkinson
- Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales
- Horseshoe Crab: Biography of a Survivor by Anthony D. Fredericks
- Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter by Ellen Prager
- Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams
- Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality by Helen Scales
- Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin by Samuel T. Turvey
- Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur by Carl Safina
April 14, 2022
O rybach naprawdę mało wiemy. Co więcej, mam wrażenie, że ryby są przez większość ludzi traktowane powierzchownie, jako niezbyt interesujące. Nie są jak psy, które kochamy, ani jak koty, które nami rządzą, po prostu nie są uchwytne, ogólnodostępne, współczujące - są trochę obce. Ryby jedna potrafią zachwycać - bo są zachwycające i każdy, kto przeczyta książkę Helen Scales RYBY MAJĄ GŁOS usłyszy ich wspaniały śpiew.
Autorka dzieli się z czytelnikiem fantastyczną pasją, wielką miłością do tych morskich, wodnych stworzeń. One są piękne! A ich różnorodność odbiera mowę - więc mówić będą w tej publikacji wyłącznie ryby - a wy, drodzy odbiorcy... będziecie słuchać.
Przygotujcie się na niezwykłe opowieści, okraszone anegdotami. Świat ryb potrafi inspirować - może kogoś zainspiruje do napisania książki, lub do wyboru ścieżki życiowej. Muszę przyznać, że do tej pory jakoś szczególnie nie zajmowałam się RYBAMI, ale teraz... cóż... teraz to się zmieniło. Zaczęło mi się marzyć obserwowanie tych stworzeń w pięknym, naturalnym środowisku - chętnie także poszłabym do jakiegoś wielkiego akwarium.
Dla mnie jednak najwspanialsze były LUDOWE PODANIA. Tak! Scales zadbała o warstwę literacką, o historie z np. Starożytnego Egiptu pt. "Ozyrys i mruk", lub z Japonii "O-namazu". To drogocenne perły, które pokazują, że ryby wcale nie były marginalizowane - one inspirowały!
"RYBY MAJĄ GŁOS przewodnik obserwatora światów podwodnych", to godna polecanie pozycja, która zaraża pasją, wciąga opowieścią i zachwyca różnorodnością. Nie sposób się przy niej nudzić! W środku odnajdziecie piękne grafiki Louis Renar, których przedsmak dostajemy na okładce. Naprawdę wartościowa pozycja, która poszerza horyzonty i - co bardzo ważne - zaskakuje. Jest także świetnie napisana, z sercem - że się tak wyrażę.
ryby mają głos - posłuchajcie, co mówią
8/10
seria #nauka
bo.wiem
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Autorka dzieli się z czytelnikiem fantastyczną pasją, wielką miłością do tych morskich, wodnych stworzeń. One są piękne! A ich różnorodność odbiera mowę - więc mówić będą w tej publikacji wyłącznie ryby - a wy, drodzy odbiorcy... będziecie słuchać.
Przygotujcie się na niezwykłe opowieści, okraszone anegdotami. Świat ryb potrafi inspirować - może kogoś zainspiruje do napisania książki, lub do wyboru ścieżki życiowej. Muszę przyznać, że do tej pory jakoś szczególnie nie zajmowałam się RYBAMI, ale teraz... cóż... teraz to się zmieniło. Zaczęło mi się marzyć obserwowanie tych stworzeń w pięknym, naturalnym środowisku - chętnie także poszłabym do jakiegoś wielkiego akwarium.
Dla mnie jednak najwspanialsze były LUDOWE PODANIA. Tak! Scales zadbała o warstwę literacką, o historie z np. Starożytnego Egiptu pt. "Ozyrys i mruk", lub z Japonii "O-namazu". To drogocenne perły, które pokazują, że ryby wcale nie były marginalizowane - one inspirowały!
"RYBY MAJĄ GŁOS przewodnik obserwatora światów podwodnych", to godna polecanie pozycja, która zaraża pasją, wciąga opowieścią i zachwyca różnorodnością. Nie sposób się przy niej nudzić! W środku odnajdziecie piękne grafiki Louis Renar, których przedsmak dostajemy na okładce. Naprawdę wartościowa pozycja, która poszerza horyzonty i - co bardzo ważne - zaskakuje. Jest także świetnie napisana, z sercem - że się tak wyrażę.
ryby mają głos - posłuchajcie, co mówią
8/10
seria #nauka
bo.wiem
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
December 18, 2022
An entertaining read filled with fun facts.
December 17, 2018
I’ve recently become curious about fish and the lives they live (probably driven by my ongoing ethical contortions about what I should eat), and this was the perfect book to slake that curiosity. It sets out to make us “contemplate fish and the rest of the world in different ways”.
Different chapters highlight different aspects of fish life: their diversity, ability to produce light, feeding, vocalisations (yes, fish are a very noisy bunch), prehistory (I could have done without an early chapter on early attempts to classify fish). These are illustrated by the author’s visits to fish in various oceans, overviews of the latest fish science, and lots of examples from across the fish world. I was constantly googling to find images to match the wonderful names, such as the Stoplight Loosejaw from the deep sea. The chapters are interspersed with fish folk tales from around the world, powerfully demonstrating how these creatures have entered human consciousness.
The writing is unfussy and strictly factual, and I sometimes wanted something a bit less, well, dry. But the facts stand by themselves, and their are hundreds in this book. For instance, 85% of the sand on a coral atoll comes from parrot fish poo. And more depressingly, 70% of Lake Victoria’s 500 species of cichlid fish have become extinct in the past 30 years.
Different chapters highlight different aspects of fish life: their diversity, ability to produce light, feeding, vocalisations (yes, fish are a very noisy bunch), prehistory (I could have done without an early chapter on early attempts to classify fish). These are illustrated by the author’s visits to fish in various oceans, overviews of the latest fish science, and lots of examples from across the fish world. I was constantly googling to find images to match the wonderful names, such as the Stoplight Loosejaw from the deep sea. The chapters are interspersed with fish folk tales from around the world, powerfully demonstrating how these creatures have entered human consciousness.
The writing is unfussy and strictly factual, and I sometimes wanted something a bit less, well, dry. But the facts stand by themselves, and their are hundreds in this book. For instance, 85% of the sand on a coral atoll comes from parrot fish poo. And more depressingly, 70% of Lake Victoria’s 500 species of cichlid fish have become extinct in the past 30 years.
January 8, 2023
Despite other reviewers feelings that this book merely dips its fins into topics without delving deeper into them, I throughly enjoyed the buffet of information Scales presented in this book. Each chapter was well thought-out and designed as well as presented, and the accompanying artwork through each chapter -but especially those which marked the beginning of one- were a delight to look at as I made my way through this book.
Scales has a lovely way of presenting information that makes sure none of the information presented grows dull; this has everything to do with her absolutely infectious love and fascination for fish. As a diver, I related to all of her asides about personal stories with different fish species through her travels diving around the world, and found them delightful additions to all of the fascinating information she has curated within this book.
If you have any kind of interest in fish, particularly for the divers out there, this is a great read. I'm looking forward to reading Scales' other works.
Scales has a lovely way of presenting information that makes sure none of the information presented grows dull; this has everything to do with her absolutely infectious love and fascination for fish. As a diver, I related to all of her asides about personal stories with different fish species through her travels diving around the world, and found them delightful additions to all of the fascinating information she has curated within this book.
If you have any kind of interest in fish, particularly for the divers out there, this is a great read. I'm looking forward to reading Scales' other works.
March 13, 2019
This is just the kind of book I usually love, but it was deeply disappointing. It's just a pile of factoids expressed in cutesy language that begs you to ogle them. Not a pleasant voice for something that I expected to build awe of the universe. No clear message building, just chapter after themed chapter of more factoids. Gave up after a third of it. Too many better books on my nightstand.
April 3, 2019
Excellent, Excellent, Excellent! Everyone who loves the ocean, loves sea life, or simply loves fish, should read this book. Helen Scales is a funny, easy-to-read science writer. Love her and her previous book about mollusks.
September 16, 2024
Big fan of fish
April 28, 2019
A difficult book to evaluate. I picked it up from the library ages ago because of the cover, the subject matter, and of course because the author who writes about fish has the last name scales. I'm certainly more of an invertebrate person and don't really know all that much about fish, but in reading this, I realized I actually do know a great deal about fish. And I guess that's the bottom line - not enough new here for me, and sadly, this type of natural history book requires really elevated, elegant writing to succeed, and Scales just didn't deliver for me. I should have known when I got stuck on the early chapter about classifications, which normally I find fascinating. But going through the various branches of the fish family tree just didn't do it for me.
I did appreciate there was one quote/story/science bit from someone I know personally - Carl Safina.
There's so many different ways to focus on a particular group of animals in natural history. Scales chose to talk about important adaptations of fish in each chapter - vision, toxins, coloration, etc. So it was basically, here's a concept we see in fish, and here's several anecdotes and a smattering of science about 3-5 different types of fish and how they use it. I did appreciate she cited relatively new studies in some areas, research published fairly recently (within the last 5 years). And I appreciated her personal stories, but they were told just as anecdotes, with no context (timeframes?). Her build up seems to have worked toward arguing that fish are more complex creatures than we usually think of them and should be valued and respected for that complexity.
Now, I know I come at this from a conservationist's angle, but it just seemed like she ignored the elephant in the room of conservation, and how we use fish - for food and for aquariums. There was little on the aquarium trade, although she has done extensive work herself in coral reefs. And almost nothing on fish as food - either the vast numbers of fish we remove from the ocean or the industry of aquaculture.
The most egregious example comes from her own work, actually. Her PhD work was on humphead wrasse on a reef in Malaysia. This reef was semi-protected due to the presence of Malasian military activity. However, she later learns that after her PhD, fishermen were allowed in and removed every single humphead wrasse from the reef. She writes: " My efforts to study humpheads suddenly felt hollow. While I'd been focusing on the minutiae of their lives, bigger forces were at work. All those fish I'd learned to recognize from their facial patterns had been doomed from the start because of the price tag on their heads. I had witnessed and documented a phenomenon that may never happen again, not there, anyway."
I can't even describe how frustrated/angry I am at this loss (this woman spent more than a year of her life, photographing individual fish to distinguish individuals!), and she's just like, oh well. She goes on the next few paragraphs to briefly touch on marine reserves, but it's really just in passing. And so it goes - overfishing, aquaculture, climate changes- just in passing.
I thought I would enjoy the vignettes between chapters, which were fish folk tales from around the world, but they required context to give them a deeper meaning.
Finally, her conclusion is certainly a worthy one, and if you want to write a book about how smart fish are and leave out conservation, ok, then, that's fine, but it requires a really deft hand to do that. This isn't tat that level. And that's a shame.
I did appreciate there was one quote/story/science bit from someone I know personally - Carl Safina.
There's so many different ways to focus on a particular group of animals in natural history. Scales chose to talk about important adaptations of fish in each chapter - vision, toxins, coloration, etc. So it was basically, here's a concept we see in fish, and here's several anecdotes and a smattering of science about 3-5 different types of fish and how they use it. I did appreciate she cited relatively new studies in some areas, research published fairly recently (within the last 5 years). And I appreciated her personal stories, but they were told just as anecdotes, with no context (timeframes?). Her build up seems to have worked toward arguing that fish are more complex creatures than we usually think of them and should be valued and respected for that complexity.
Now, I know I come at this from a conservationist's angle, but it just seemed like she ignored the elephant in the room of conservation, and how we use fish - for food and for aquariums. There was little on the aquarium trade, although she has done extensive work herself in coral reefs. And almost nothing on fish as food - either the vast numbers of fish we remove from the ocean or the industry of aquaculture.
The most egregious example comes from her own work, actually. Her PhD work was on humphead wrasse on a reef in Malaysia. This reef was semi-protected due to the presence of Malasian military activity. However, she later learns that after her PhD, fishermen were allowed in and removed every single humphead wrasse from the reef. She writes: " My efforts to study humpheads suddenly felt hollow. While I'd been focusing on the minutiae of their lives, bigger forces were at work. All those fish I'd learned to recognize from their facial patterns had been doomed from the start because of the price tag on their heads. I had witnessed and documented a phenomenon that may never happen again, not there, anyway."
I can't even describe how frustrated/angry I am at this loss (this woman spent more than a year of her life, photographing individual fish to distinguish individuals!), and she's just like, oh well. She goes on the next few paragraphs to briefly touch on marine reserves, but it's really just in passing. And so it goes - overfishing, aquaculture, climate changes- just in passing.
I thought I would enjoy the vignettes between chapters, which were fish folk tales from around the world, but they required context to give them a deeper meaning.
Finally, her conclusion is certainly a worthy one, and if you want to write a book about how smart fish are and leave out conservation, ok, then, that's fine, but it requires a really deft hand to do that. This isn't tat that level. And that's a shame.
January 21, 2020
This is a delightful survey of fish in biology and culture. Helen Scales’ breezy style brings an effervescence to her subject that is much like watching the fish themselves. Scales handles the breadth of her subject with aplomb and her enthusiasm for fishes comes out on every page. Scales also injects vignettes about herself and other scientists at work, and her account of early efforts (16th through 18th centuries)at cataloging and identifying fishes is fascinating. When she talks about herself, Scales seems to want to share how much she is inspired by her work, rather than convey her achievements. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the oceans and ocean life: a hard four stars.
My one complaint is that pollution, global warming, fishery collapses, ocean acidification, ans so on aren't discussed at all in the book, and while such discussions would substantially alter the tone of the book, I think the author should have at least given a reason for leaving these topics out of the book, maybe in some prefatory material.
My one complaint is that pollution, global warming, fishery collapses, ocean acidification, ans so on aren't discussed at all in the book, and while such discussions would substantially alter the tone of the book, I think the author should have at least given a reason for leaving these topics out of the book, maybe in some prefatory material.
July 3, 2018
Eye of the Shoal takes a wide ranging, deep diving look at the fascinating history and biology of fish. It focuses not on a particular underwater ecosystem or community, but a hodge-podge of fishy players exquisitely adapted to fill every watery nook and cranny across the globe. Scales makes a compelling case for looking closely at any fish that crosses your path; although many of the characters we meet live in the reef, she makes sure to give the residents of your local fish tank their due. In Eye of the Shoal, Scales brings us into the rich, diverse, glorious world of fish full tilt—and has a good time doing it.
Full review: http://selections.rockefeller.edu/boo...
Full review: http://selections.rockefeller.edu/boo...
August 18, 2024
A book that does exactly what the title says. Helen Scales doesn't try to show off her wit, waffle on about scientific colleagues' hairstyles or do tenuous analogies, she just gets on with telling you about fish, their behavior and evolution. The book is lucid, informative and accessible. Like all of the many books I've read on creatures the implicit message is that understanding the lives of other creatures will naturally lead us to respect them and thus treat them better, rather than directly and indirectly destroying them.
June 20, 2022
This book took me a while to read, but I don’t feel too guilty since it’s split into sections. I really enjoyed the first few sections, and the last section on the cognition of fish. But many of the sections in the middle to end portion of the book got a bit boring to me. In the section about the toxins of fish it got extremely dull as the conversation about pufferfish went on for much too long. But other than that, the book is a good insight onto some of the unique characteristics of fish.
September 20, 2022
Lots of fascinating information about various fish. Checking each fish on the internet became part of my reading. At first I did not like the writing style. Happily the topic got me reading on and the writing became pleasant. The myriad of information is well organized and presented clearly and interestingly. A whole underwater reality was revealed to me. By the time I finished the book I became full of enchanting wonder. Gratitude to Helen Scales.
June 20, 2024
I don't remember most of it, coz well.. i didn't read it with the intention to, it was purely to pass the time in a fun Hermione Annabeth way but WHAT AN INTERESTING BOOK!
Really well written, rather enchanting actually. Could be a serious read, could be a fun light read about fishes. It's perfect for both.
June 21, 2024
Really well written, rather enchanting actually. Could be a serious read, could be a fun light read about fishes. It's perfect for both.
June 21, 2024
July 25, 2020
Eye of the Shoal successfully shows that fish are much more fascinating than you ever imagined. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2018...
May 19, 2022
This book was amazing!! This is a great read for any aspiring ichthyologists like myself. Helen Scales has perfect prose and is a captivating storyteller. Scenes of coral reefs, murky rivers, and vast oceans come alive on the pages and I loved spending time reading this book every day.
June 26, 2025
I’m sure this was incredible I just couldn’t get through it because it was very specific fish info which is totally what I wanted in picking it up and I guess my brain couldn’t connect to the fish like I hoped.
July 21, 2018
I like fish more now. Easy popsci, needed addtional depth.
October 7, 2018
Took twice as long to read as it would have if I hadn’t read half the book aloud to my husband! Excellent.
July 7, 2019
Looked daunting but then I started reading and I didn't want it to end because there were so many fascinating facts about fish.
August 12, 2019
I’m more of a bird guy, but I really enjoyed this read.
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