Tove's Offshore book in my hands

[Harry LeGrand <Harry.LeGrand@ncmail.net>]

Pelagic buffs:
    Although his book is not officially released yet by the Univ. of
Texas Press, Mike Tove has handed out several complimentary copies of
his book "Guide to the Offshore Wildlife of the Northern Atlantic". It
looks very impressive! It is comparable to what Harrison has done just
for pelagic birds -- not only writing about the birds, but painting all
the plates himself. In this case, Tove has written all 136 species
accounts and done all of the 39 color plates himself -- no second
author!  I guess the recent feat on Sibley's bird book, with many
thousands of birds illustrated by himself, might be more impressive, but
Tove had to cover not only birds, but whales, dolphins, seals, and
turtles.

This is NOT a book review. That can come once the book is available and
folks have it in hand to refer to plates or pages for any reviewer
comments. It doesn't do any good now to refer to Plate C being
excellent, or Plate F being a little off color, or an error on page V,
etc.

Rather, this is a capsule summary of what the book contains, so that you
have an idea what you will be getting once you go ahead and place your
order now! You can order from Univ. of Texas Press now, at
<www.utexas.edu/utpress>. I assume amazon.com has the book on its book
list now, but the book is scheduled for release in January 2001.

The book is 7" x 10" (larger than field guide size) and roughly 3/4"
thick, with 250 pages. Of these pages, there are 39 color plates, with
an average of 4-5 species per plate. Birds are illustrated on 1-24,
whales and dolphins from 25-36, seals on 37-38, and sea turtles on 39.
Because of the large size of the pages, the figures (almost all of which
are of birds in flight) are often 3" from wing tip to wing tip.  As
expected, Tove has upper and lower side views of most of the seabirds,
such as the shearwaters, albatrosses, and alcids on the water and in
flight.

The best part of the book for me is the cetaceans. Formerly, I had to
wade through books with all cetaceans, from all of the oceans. Tove's
book has just those of the northern Atlantic. The best features is his
plates of the surfacing patterns of the cetaceans -- roughly 3 paintings
in a row of the front end coming out of the water, the middle  (dorsal
fin), and then the finish with the tail. He also has some paintings of
dolphins as they are jumping out of the water. You can call these plates
"Cetaceans through Binoculars" (to borrow from the recent books on
butterflies and dragonflies)! Of course, he does have the full body side
views of all of the whales and dolphins, but the paintings of them as
seen in the field coming out of the water is a real plus, for which I
have yet to see any any previous cetacean book.

The text contains information on 136 species (82 birds, 6 turtles, and
the remainder mammals). A few accidentals, such as Mottled Petrel, are
included. At any rate, it covers ALL of the groups recorded in the
northern Atlantic. Roughly two species are covered per page, with
headings of Identification, Flight behavior (or surfacing behavior), May
be confused with, and Range/distribution.  There are no range maps, so
the distribution is given for each species in the last field -- plus in
....

The very innovative 18 range abundance charts. You may have seen one or
two of these in Winging It a few years ago. There are bar charts for the
12 months, with the species listed down the left side -- for a single
port/site. That is, there is a chart for the NC offshore waters, one for
FL, one for Va. Beach, one for the Bay of Fundy, two for the Gulf of
Mexico, and six for the western portion of Europe (remember, this guide
is geared for European pelagic watchers also, so Mediterranean Gull,
etc., are included). Thickness of lines show the abundance of a given
species over the course of the year.

All in all, this is a very complete book for what one would expect to
see on a pelagic trip anywhere. Of course, it is the first major guide
to include the various animal groups in a single book. Plus, having the
paintings of the surfacing views of the cetaceans, and the 18
distribution charts are special highlights of the book.  The book has
the customary introductory material about the oceans, currents,
wind/weather information, info. about seasickness, and so forth.

Hopefully, the book will be available before the first set of pelagic
trips off NC (weather permitting) this coming February. I'm sure copies
will be taken aboard every pelagic trip in the north Atlantic from now
on!

Harry LeGrand

--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
(919) 715-8687 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net