New book on South Pacific reef fishes

Hi all,

Jack Randall (the world's leading authority in reef fish taxonomy) has just published a new book on reef fishes of the South Pacific. It is a magnificent book, and by far the most complete and accurate work on the South Pacific fish fauna to date. While this is a must have to anyone that is interested in South Pacific fishes, due to its large size (it weighs 7 pounds!) it is no field guide. It is available online in any major bookstore. Here is detailed information from the book:

Reef and Shore Fishes of the South Pacific

2005 by John E. Randall

This monumental volume covers the inshore fish fauna of New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, the southern Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), Tuvalu, Fiji, the Wallis Islands, Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, the Phoenix Islands, the Cook Islands, the Austral Islands, Rapa, the Society Islands, the Tuamoto Archipelago, the Marquesas Islands, and the Pitcairn Islands. It contains accounts of nearly 1,500 species of fishes. 720 pages. 2,018 color illustrations.

Jack Randall is amazing. He's eighty & still going strong, still diving, taking pictures, doing research, and publishing. A real inspiration for us.

Yes Leslie, he is truly amazing. I am honored to be his friend and colleague, and to say that we dove together a few years ago in Mexico. I was one of the scientists who nominated him to the Bleeker award for an outstanding contribution in ichthyology during the last Indo-Pacific fish conference. He won the award, of course. He has described more than 550 reef fish species, published more than 600 papers and 10 books. He is undoubtedly the greatest ichthyologist alive. We are writing a paper together about the terminal male phase of a poorly known wrasse from Belize.