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'Scales's genuine appreciation and awe for fish are contagious.'- Science
'Delightful' - New Scientist
Seventy per cent of the earth's surface is covered by water. This vast aquatic realm is inhabited by a multitude of strange creatures and reigning supreme among them are the fish.
There are giants that live for centuries and thumb-sized tiddlers that survive only weeks; they can be pancake-flat or inflatable balloons; they can shout with colours or hide in plain sight, cheat and dance, remember and say sorry; some rarely budge while others travel the globe restlessly. And yet the mesmerising and complex lives of fish remain largely underrated and unseen, living hidden beneath the waterline, out of sight and out of mind.
Helen Scales is our guide on an underwater journey, as we fathom the depths and watch these animals going about the glorious business of being fish. As well as the fish, we meet devoted fishwatchers past and present, from voodoo zombie potion hunters and scientists who taught fish how to walk to nonagenarian explorers of the deep sea.
Woven throughout are vignettes of Helen's own aquatic explorations, from eerie nighttime dives with glowing fish and up-close encounters with giant manta rays, to floating in the middle of a swirling shoal being watched by thousands of inquisitive eyes.
As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals and the seas they inhabit, and to go out and appreciate the 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.
'Engaging and informative' The Economist
Contents
Prologue: The wandering ichthyologist
Chapter 1: Ichthyo-curiosities
Sedna the sea goddess
Chapter 2: A view from the deep - introducing the fish
How the flounder lost its smile
Chapter 3: Outrageous acts of colour
The salmon of knowledge
Chapter 4: Illuminations
O-namazu
Chapter 5: Anatomy of a shoal
Osiris and the elephantfish
Chapter 6: Fish food
Vatnagedda
Chapter 7: Toxic fish
Chipfalamfula
Chapter 8: How fish used to be
The Doctor of the sea
Chapter 9: Fish symphonies
The fish and the golden shoe
Chapter 10: (Re)thinking fish
Epilogue
Appendix: Illustration species list
Glossary
Select bibliography and notes
Acknowledgements
Index
