New Pacific Fish ID Book

I noticed that there is a new Fish ID book for the tropical Pacific:

Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific by Gerald Allen, Roger Steene, and Paul Humann. If it's as good as Humann's Caribbean Fish ID books, it should be a "must have" book for divers.

The list price is $45, but Amazon has it for $31.50 and free shipping. I ordered one today.

Any update? I'd like to know how it is!

We've had the book for a week or so. It's very similar to Humann's Caribbean ID books, with a couple of exceptions. First, instead of a ring binder, it has a regular glued spine, so eventually it will break with all the page flipping. Second, in the Caribbean books, there is an indication of how common the creature is - that's missing with this book.

Like the first edition of Humann's Caribbean Fish ID book, some of the photos could be better. Still, considering the huge number of species included, the authors did a nice job (note: this is a FISH ID book, and only fish are included).

Here's one example of the format:

All in all, the book is well worth the price. Hopefully, the authors will follow up with a non-fish ID book for all the shrimp, nudibranchs, crinoids, etc.

I thought there was someone looking over my shoulder

There are no Latin names Jim?

There are no Latin names Jim?

Yes, Bob, the book shows the Latin genus/species for most fish. Here's the full panel - the hairy frogfish is listed as a variation, so it didn't show the Latin description.

Welcome back to civilization! It looks to me like you guys had w-a-y too much fun (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

Cheers,

Jim

Thanks Jim & Yes, Make sure you both join the next one too eh!

Don't forget Ned DeLoach is one of the authors!

I got Paul Humann and Ned to sign my book at DEMA.

It's really good to have an update, Allen and Steene's Indo-Pacific book was getting long in the tooth.

It's really good to have an update, Allen and Steene's Indo-Pacific book was getting long in the tooth.

I agree. The "Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide" is very good, and it covers a lot more than just fish, but the new book has dozens of times more fish in it.

And yes, to be fair about it, the authors are:

Gerald Allen

Roger Steene

Paul Humann

Ned DeLoach

They have written a superb book, and I hope that they are working on a reef creatures book for all the non-fish critters that we encounter.