Margaret Smith Library, SAIAB: Good Reads

Covers threats to the survival of fish in the world's oceans: damage caused by various types of fishing equipment; the impact of politics on the regulation of fishing: harmful effects of overfishing, pollution, and global warming.

In an engaging read, Kurlansky puzzles over why the Atlantic cod, which can grow as big as a heavyweight boxer and once thrived by the millions in the North Sea and off Iceland, and on the Grand Banks and the Georges Bank, is now commercially extinct almost everywhere. A modern classic.

Fish, Greenberg reveals, are the last truly wild food - for now. By examining the forces that get fish to our dinner tables, he shows how we can start to heal the oceans and fight for a world where healthy and sustainable seafood is the rule rather than the exception.

An aspect of Africa’s cultural heritage that has largely been ignored – its traditional fishing methods. An astonishing variety of innovative fishing techniques has been developed by African fishermen using their intimate knowledge of the distribution and behaviour of fishes and the dynamic properties of aquatic environments.

Mike Bruton, past JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology Director, explores and discusses the various issues and topics in which he was involved as a scientist, conservationist and science educator.

This autobiography covers the many years when he was a fisheries officer in East Africa, and later involved in fisheries research in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Peter Jackson had a long association with DIFS and JLBSI.

The author's aim in writing this book was to use his personal experience of field work in fishery development and ecological research in Africa to assess attitudes to, and success or failure of, international development schemes. It deals with West, Central and East Africa from the 1950s to the present.

The author was an early pioneer studying the ecology and evolution of the rich diversity of freshwater fishes in African lakes and South American rivers. Her research into cichlid fishes included tilapia, evolving in Africa, now such important food fish worldwide.

This biography of Ethelwynn Trewavas (ET), Rosemary Lowe-McConnell (Ro) and Eugenie Clark (Genie) is enhanced by personal interviews.

A five-year circumnavigation that changed science. When he set out, 22-year-old Darwin was a young university graduate, still intent on being a clergyman. By the time he returned, he was an established naturalist. Perfectly told by Alan Moorhead and magnificently illustrated.

Today's leading thinkers examine controversial and alarming ideas and bold discoveries in the history of science.

Mermaids? Yetis? Fur bearing trout? An expert on sea shells in Britain takes us on a tour of zoological fakes discovered during his museum work..

Provides accurate, entertaining, and sometimes surprising answers to over 100 questions about these water dwellers, such as 'How many kinds of fishes are there?' 'Can fishes breathe air?' 'How smart are fishes?' 'Do fishes feel pain?'

To understand the connections between the sea and our own survival, Carl Safina, a world-respected scientist and fisherman, probes for truth in this tour of the oceans and their peoples. Part odyssey, part pilgrimage, this epic personal narrative follows the explores coasts, islands, reefs, and the sea's abyssal depths.

100 key concepts in modern science in language easily understood by general readers. With everyday examples and instructive diagrams to describe scientific principles, hypotheses, theorems and laws.

A collection of essays by leading scientists and researchers in the field of biodiversity, including E.O. Wilson, Paul Ehrlich, Thomas Eisner, and Niles Eldridge, speaking directly in their own voices and with their own diverse perspectives. Topics include the importance of biodiversity, extinctions, threats to biodiversity, and strategies and solutions.

"A brilliant collection ... If you could only ever read one science book, this should probably be it". [New Scientist book review]

Based on a highly successful BBC series.Thirteen informal conversations with eminent scientists--including physicists, molecular biologists, cancer researchers and astronomers--who speak with remarkable candor and good humour about the personal side of science: why they became scientists, what they find most rewarding about their work, and what it feels like to make a major discovery.