A satisfying explanation of a well-known mystery--but I won't spoil it by telling you which one. All the main characters are charmingly written (my favorites are the grumpy old grandpa and Angus, the little boy who is always ready to eat) and I loved how King-Smith described what the water horse was thinking. This book leaves you with a good feeling.

P.S. If you're a Pokemon fan--I wonder if this is where they got the idea for Lapras?!?

I Liked This Book.Once You Open You'll Like It From The Very Beginning. Dick-King Smith Did Good.I Liked The Illistrations It Is Funny.So If Your A Good Reader Go To Your Local Library And Check Out The Water Horse

When Kirstie finds an egg on the beach, she takes it home. It hatches in her bathtub. It turns out to be a kelpie or better known as the Water Horse. They keep it in a goldfish pond and feed it fish when it gets to big they move it to a big loch. When the Water Horse gets to big for the loch they don't know what to do!! what will happen to the Water Horse??!? Read this book to find out the rest of this fun, exciting story!!!

This book describes how an invasive alga was released into the Mediterranean and details the political story of why it was allowed to spread. The alga, caulerpa taxiflora, was first discovered growing under the windows of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in 1989. When Meinesz saw the alga, he approached the director of the museum and was told that the alga, being tropical in nature, would never survive the winter. However, it did indeed survive the winter, flourished, and over the next few years spread beyond Monaco to the coast of France, Spain, and as far away as Croatia.

Although one section of the appendix describes the biology of the alga, the vast majority of the book is devoted to documenting the various political battles that the author fought to try to convince the authorities to take action against the spread of the alga. Some of the behind-the-scenes tales of how the academic publishing establishment works were quite illuminating. After reading this book, I will also be rather skeptical when I come across scientific articles in the popular press, especially newspapers, since Meinesz points out how often reporters got the details wrong or pulled other facts out of context. When I picked up this book, I was more interested in learning the scientific and environmental implications of an invasive species, but that's not the focus of this book.

This book should wake up anyone who still believes that clear scientific truth will automatically change the way that governments make decisions. Consider it the ocean-side equivalent of Halberstam's classic "The Best and the Brightest." and an excellent complement to Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly". Dr. Meinesz was among the few and leading French scientific voices who saw and, what's more, cared about the epidemic spread of a tropical green algae along the world's most expensive coastline - the Riviera. He shows how the famous Oceanographic Museum at Monaco not only caused the problem with its careless handling of an exotic species but how the Director's disinformation cover-up campaign spread faster than the noxious seaweed itself. And it did not help that this environmental mayhem was started under the watch of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (the preceding museum director). One of the most striking things one learns is how diverse and complex -- and ultimately useless -- the French bureaucracy is, that is supposed to be protecting their coastlines and marine environments. A scary story that might have done better with a more carefully chosen title!

The author does not try to convince the reader of the ecological threat that the algae imposes. That is now obviouse. He recounts the politics involved with this ecological crisis. There is a historical record of a failure in a system composed of government officials and agencies, and reputable scientific circles. First, the governmental agencies failed to recognize the problem. The "wait and see" attitude that is described shows a certain apathy or indolence of bureaucratic agencies. There is a failure in the practic of science to report ideas with the proper rigor. Both the author and his opponants make mistakes that exacerbate a pseudo-scientific debate, causing confusion in the news media. The unfortunate result is a crisis spiraling out of controll. In the last section "the lessons of Caulerpa" he explains his opinions on why the failure in the system occured. I don't necessarily agree with his views, but it is an interesting critique of the current politics of biological science.

I don't think this book is quite as bad as the one star the first reviewer gave it, but the second reviewer must be kidding. Five stars?! Terrific graphic design?! Fun to read?! I give it two stars, and that's being on the generous side. I would not recommend it.

I am in love with tropical marine life, but this is the first book about reef ecology I've read so I'm not exactly sure how to judge it. I've read the whole book, cover to cover, in about two weeks for offhand studies, maybe 10-15 pages a day, on average, all week. The first part of the book is a little interesting, talking about the structure of jellyfish, or more correctly 'sea jellies', but not much for me to give the book rapt attention. Some parts are just plain boring to be honest.The pictures are good, but not a lot of text, most of the time just a third or a half of the page is text.
I think the most interesting part is the last half where it talks about coral reef predators and the impact of human life on the Hawaiian reefs. It's not exactly a book that you can't put down, but it has some fascinating information that I think any marine life lover should know, so all in all I think it's a pretty good book.

This is an unusual work because of its partly textbook, partly "comic book" format, but don't let that fool you. The author presents a wealth of information on the extremely complex, multi-faceted animal and plant interrelationships of Hawaii's coral reef ecosystem. He has pulled together an enormous amount of data from the scientific journal literature (where it is widely scattered and basically unavailable to lay readers) and has organized and presented this knowledge in his own unique, original and easy-to-assimilate style. From some of the comments below, it is clear that some people don't take to his style, but I found it refreshing, amusing at times, and certainly easier to read than a standard textbook. He has simplified, but not dumbed down the information, and illustrated it with numerous photographs and drawings. This book is really jam packed with illustrative material. (If you are looking for a lot of gorgeous underwater photographs, however, this book will disappoint. These are working photos, not pretty pictures for the most part.) For solid information on how a reef ecosystem works this is as good an introduction as you are likely to get. In fact, it's pretty much unique. I know of nothing else like it and I learned a tremendous amount by reading it. I should mention that, as the title indicates, the book is limited pretty much to Hawaiian reefs, which have fewer species and are probably less complex than reefs in the Caribbean or western Pacific. But the basic relationships and ideas hold true for all coral reefs. Yes, perhaps the author could be seen as a bit preachy, but he is devoted to protecting Hawaii's reefs and shouldn't be faulted for that. I give this book high marks for its originality and for the sheer amount of complex information the author has managed to present. If you are deeply interested in the subject of coral reef ecology, definitely get this book. If you are only marginally interested in coral reefs, well--you may find the book only marginally interesting. That's my take.

Doubilet's latest book, 'Great Barrier Reef' (GBR) is disappointing when compared to his 'Water Light Time' masterpiece. But then, I consider 'Water Light Time' to be the BEST photography book...period.

I might have had unfair expectations.

In GBR, one sees the same picture composition over and over again (coral in foreground, diver above). The same colour combinations (yellow-coloured coral - yet again!). To me, the shots lack Doubilet's creativity...there is nothing NEW in the pictures. No new angles. No new techniques used. Compare Doubilet's earlier work with the previously mentioned 'Water Light Time' book and you will see how he continued to set new standards book after book. Maybe this time, the reef did not allow for any better pictures...who knows?

The photographs look as if they could have been taken by any one of a hundred lesser skilled underwater photographers. To think that I did not hesitate to buy GBR, believing that it would at least meet the high standards Doubilet had set for himself...

I have not read a David Alexander novel in a very long time, and reading this 1st novel of this series reminded me why.
Now, don't get me wrong, Mr. Alexander is a very good writer and knows his stuff on weaponry and gadgets, but his downfall is characterization!
I didn't get to know anyone except the leader of the special forces unit named Saxon and a couple of the spetsnaz bad guys. And I didn't care much for any of them!!
The Russian soldier named Batalin was the most promoted here. I got to know what made him tick much more than the lead character here. Saxon was written as a dead-beat dad which seemed rather unsavory to me. No other member of this special team stood out or was introduced as anything other than a soldier.
This lack of depth made the book lackluster to me because when people died - I didn't care! There was no feeling here for any characters, none were really given much in the way of 'real-like people'.
C'mon Mr. Alexander - you have more knowledge of missiles and all the gadgets than you do your characters. This flaw made for a stiff read. The action and adventure was there and written quite well, but lacked the force of other writers in this field such as James V. Smith.
In my estimation, Mr. Smith's FORCE RECON series is far superior in both of these areas that Mr. Alexander missed upon.
But I believe in 2nd chances. I still think that the other novels in this series could perhaps be better.
Who know? But I'll let you know!

Doubilet's latest book, 'Great Barrier Reef' (GBR) is disappointing when compared to his 'Water Light Time' masterpiece. But then, I consider 'Water Light Time' to be the BEST photography book...period.

I might have had unfair expectations.

In GBR, one sees the same picture composition over and over again (coral in foreground, diver above). The same colour combinations (yellow-coloured coral - yet again!). To me, the shots lack Doubilet's creativity...there is nothing NEW in the pictures. No new angles. No new techniques used. Compare Doubilet's earlier work with the previously mentioned 'Water Light Time' book and you will see how he continued to set new standards book after book. Maybe this time, the reef did not allow for any better pictures...who knows?

The photographs look as if they could have been taken by any one of a hundred lesser skilled underwater photographers. To think that I did not hesitate to buy GBR, believing that it would at least meet the high standards Doubilet had set for himself...