Reef Fish, Reef Coral and Reef Creature Identification (Florida, Caribbean and Bahamas)
The Paul Humann scuba diving books are pretty much the gold standard of the dive book industry. You'll often see them referred to as the "bible" of identification.
And once you go through them, you understand why. It will help you identify pretty much anything you see while you are diving.
They are pretty much a staple in dive shops and live-aboards in the Bahamas and Caribbean. Many a dive has been ended with divers flipping through the pages trying to identify that fish they saw during the dive. It's a must have resource.
Title:
Reef Fish Identification (Florida Caribbean Bahamas)
These scuba books identify pretty much anything you see underwater. It has a grouping system so you can easily find the chapter that might contain the object you saw.
First there is a pencil outline of shapes of fish, coral, etc. so you can place the group your object would fall in. Then you go to that specific chapter.
You'll then find great pictures of individual fish, coral, etc. that have type of shape. In addition, each individual entry for fish also has a line drawing that points out the specific identifying factors of that fish.
Each individual entry than contains the following information:
Size
Depth Range
Distinctive Features
Description
(Coral and Creatures entries may contain order, class, suborder, subclass, family classification).
Abundance & Distribution
Habitat & Behavior
Reaction to Divers
(where applicable)
So if you want to know what you saw underwater, the Paul Humann scuba diving books are the set to have. It's also alot of fun just to flip through and try and identify how many of the different species you have seen.
And the best of all - it is that definitive resource to answer that bet you made over a beer. Noone will question information in these books. So bottoms up!
