Marine Mammals of California, New and Revised Edition

Each summer I teach a one week marine mammal class at the U.S.C. Wrigley Marine Lab at Santa Catalina Island. The class is designed for students with little or no experience with marine mammal biology or the study of these wonderful animals. This is the book I request that they purchase and read during that week, because it is such a complete and accurate collection of information about the marine mammals of California. It contains excellent illustrations, it is brief but thorough, and there are plenty of references if students want to delve deeper into the subject. I highly recommend this book.

In the summer of '99 I took a trip with Modesto Junior College and Glendale Community College to a fishing village in Baja, Mexico, called Bahia de Los Angeles to spend some time with marine vertabrates. This book, along with Fishes of the Pacific Coast by Gar Goodson, and Western Birds by Roger Tory Peterson, were our trusty dusty feild guides. Though not as glossy and colorfull as the other mentioned guides, Marine Mammals of California does what it intends to do quite well. Still, it seems to me that in any certain area the relatively few number of different marine mammals (we saw Brydes, and Fin whales, and California Sea Lions) wouldn't necessitate bringing a feild ID guide (we KNEW what we were looking for!). Still, this book is great to thumb through to make comparisons between species, and get the breif facts about range, anatomy, taxonomy, etc. (can you tell me the two main anatomical differences between seals and sea lions? huh? huh?). Final word. If you live near the Pacific, or wish you did, than this book belongs on your shelf, and perhaps in your backpack.