Dive Books

[PinayDiver]

Hey, a Reading Circle! I like
Now enjoying Diane Ackerman’s The Moon by Whale Light. While not exactly a “diving book,” one-fourth of her nature-expedition accounts here (shorter versions of these ran in The New Yorker) centers on whales -- recounting trips to Hawaii, Argentina, and Patagonia. Towards the end, she describes swimming within two feet of a 50-foot, 50-ton Right Whale’s mouth. “I looked directly into her eye, and she looked directly back at me, as we hung in the water, studying each other.” Even more exciting, that same whale’s big-as-an-elephant calf was right there too. It’s not as macho as this may perhaps sound; There was a lot of tentativeness and sensing and respect going on.
I guess the kind of books on animals and their habitats (my diving motivation, really) that I take home are those that weave the scientific with the anecdotal; you know, journalism that’s a pleasure to read (I'm a David Quammen and Tim Cahill fan too). And Ackerman does take her time to -- as the all-too common blurb goes -- bring the reader along for the ride.

[seasnake]

By the way, I finished reading "Shadow Divers". I give it two fins up. Very interesting read, especially if you like history. It was amazing the amount of research they duo did. The book had a lot of great elements: well written, interesting mystery, great characters, adventure, drama. Another thread said there was going to be a movie made of this book?

[PinayDiver]

I was at the book store one lunch break, trying to find Shadow Divers or The Last Dive or Diver Down because the thumbs up here perked my interest but that branch didn't have any of these on their shelves. I instead ended up with Out of Eden (An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion) by Alan Burdick.

Starts with plane-hitching brown tree snakes that have been eating Guam’s birds and practically “anything that smells of blood.” Ends with -- yes, there is a marine equivalent (in dispersal rate and rapaciousness) -- the European Green Crab.

Around one-third of the book dwells on marine bioinvasion and ballast ecology. Burdick says the appearance and content of entire marine ecosystems may be historically suspect. What we think is natural is really introduced over a century of maritime trade. He describes ballast water as moving aquariums infesting local waters with exotic marine pests. Sometimes the result is simply addition/absorption (new niches open up) but sometimes its disastrous subtraction -- like in the green crab’s case (not only depressing local populations, even single-handedly collapsing one city’s soft-shell industry).

Reads like a field report, fascinating in ts musing and detail. For example: If a marine biocontrol agent for the green crab would ever be attempted, a biologist proposes employing a parasitic barnacle (known to infect it in its home range). Apparently, as a gelatinous blob at the start of its life cycle, it finds a crab and, like a syringe, injects its parasitic innards. It then extends its roots throughout the crab’s body, weakening it but keeping it alive enough to go about its business -- including trying to reproduce except that instead of larval cabs, its brood is larval barnacles. “Sacculina carcini could be Alien for alien crabs, their Night of the Living Dead...Imagining itself as an organism in control of its fate and the trajectory of its offspring, in fact it is gradually fashioning a future in which it is merely a vessel for another form of life...” Good stuff

[dalehall]

By the way, I finished reading "Shadow Divers". I give it two fins up. Very interesting read, especially if you like history. It was amazing the amount of research they duo did. The book had a lot of great elements: well written, interesting mystery, great characters, adventure, drama. Another thread said there was going to be a movie made of this book?

Yep..
You read a bit about it here..
Shadow Divers Movie

[hbh2oguard]

so we have a few years to wait

[dalehall]

The original write up on IMDB had it coming out in 2008.. I guess it's taking them longer to get ready than they anticipated. I will definately add this one to my DVD collection. (If I am stupid enough to purchase "Open Water 2: Adrift," I'll purchase anything. )

[Sarah]

Lu-Anne, that plot line sounds like either Aliens, or the typical replication modl of viruses reprogramming a cell's DNA.

[santelmo]

south east Asia fish guide

[PinayDiver]

Happy to share that I finally got my hands on a copy of Shadow Diver. Boy, am I glad this thread directed me to it. It is a compelling read. I'm at the part where Chatterton, ascending on the anchor line with his goody bag of definitive china (with its eagle-and-swastika markings), caught up to Kohler. And they were either going to come to blows OR form a tentative bond. What a pleasure to read, thanks for the recommendation!

P.S. I was also fascinated by Drozd's story (how he died with a full air of tank on his back).

As well as with the contention that wreck divers plan their dives in their heads all the time even when, on the surface, they're paying their bills and other such "mundane" stuff.

[seasnake]

Like (I think) I said below, as you get into the book and read about the work they did in researching their find ... I found that really interesting. Let us know when you are done and what your final thoughts are of the book!

Ron