Biology, Reviews

Review: Stow, Oceans

jacket imageWriting for the December issue of Oceanography, the official magazine of the American Oceanography Society, columnist Tom Garrison notes that it’s not often one comes across a text as comprehensive and versatile as Dorrik Stow’s newest book Oceans: An Illustrated Reference. Garrison writes:

Here is a very rare book: a skillfully written, current, and unusually attractive presentation of ocean science that does not talk down to the audience [but that] unapologetically uses genus names and the SI system of measurements.… [Stow] has integrated contributions from experts in interlocking fields to produce a book that accomplishes the near-impossible: It could be used as a text (it has a useful glossary and index); it could grace anyone’s coffee table (the cover photo demands one pick up the book); [or] it could sit happily on a reference shelf (where its charts and tables would be in considerable demand).

Lavishly illustrated and filled with current research, Oceans is a rich, magnificent, and illuminating volume for anyone and everyone who has ever heard the siren song of the sea.
We previously posted an essay by Stow, “Oceans and Sustainability”.