Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything
There's something about fish that leaves a cold, slimy whiff in many people's minds. Either that, or fish are simply 'food'; catching fish to eat is so deeply ingrained that we fish for fish, but we don't pigeon a pigeon or deer a deer. It's difficult to think of fish as wild, living things, partly because those chunks of white meat on our plates are almost impossible to connect to animate, living, breathing creatures, in the same way a steak doesn't call to mind a mooing, cud-chewing cow.

To make matters worse, fish inhabit a realm beyond our normal, everyday experiences. Wild fish hover in seas, rivers and lakes, out of sight and out of mind. But from the very first time Helen Scales immersed herself into their liquid world, she realised that fish are beautiful, mesmerising, complex and exciting. The moment she sank down to eyeball a wild trout – the fish poised in front of her, expertly occupying the three-dimensional space in a way that she could only dream of imitating – sparked the ichthyologist within, and set in motion years of study and exploration in the fishes' unseen domain as she became a devoted fish-watcher.

In this book, Scales shares the secrets of fish, unhitching them from their reputation as cold-hearted, unknowable beasts and reinventing them as clever, emotional, singing, thoughtful animals, and challenging readers to rethink these animals. She takes readers on an underwater journey to watch these creatures going about the hidden but glorious business of being a fish. Their way of life is radically different from our own, in part because they inhabit a buoyant, sticky fluid in which light, heat, gases and sound behave in odd ways. They've evolved many tactics to overcome these challenges, to become megastars of the life sub-aquatic, and there are many different ways to be a fish; these extraordinary, diverse animals tell us so much about life, the oceans and everything.

Woven throughout will be stories of how fish have splashed into our world, and not simply as food. Our relationship with these scaly creatures goes much deeper than predator versus prey. Fish leave their mark on the human world.

As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals, and the seas, and to go out and appreciate the wildness and wonders of fish, whether through the glass walls of an aquarium or, better still, by gazing into the fishes' wild world and swimming through it.
"1126932272"
Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything
There's something about fish that leaves a cold, slimy whiff in many people's minds. Either that, or fish are simply 'food'; catching fish to eat is so deeply ingrained that we fish for fish, but we don't pigeon a pigeon or deer a deer. It's difficult to think of fish as wild, living things, partly because those chunks of white meat on our plates are almost impossible to connect to animate, living, breathing creatures, in the same way a steak doesn't call to mind a mooing, cud-chewing cow.

To make matters worse, fish inhabit a realm beyond our normal, everyday experiences. Wild fish hover in seas, rivers and lakes, out of sight and out of mind. But from the very first time Helen Scales immersed herself into their liquid world, she realised that fish are beautiful, mesmerising, complex and exciting. The moment she sank down to eyeball a wild trout – the fish poised in front of her, expertly occupying the three-dimensional space in a way that she could only dream of imitating – sparked the ichthyologist within, and set in motion years of study and exploration in the fishes' unseen domain as she became a devoted fish-watcher.

In this book, Scales shares the secrets of fish, unhitching them from their reputation as cold-hearted, unknowable beasts and reinventing them as clever, emotional, singing, thoughtful animals, and challenging readers to rethink these animals. She takes readers on an underwater journey to watch these creatures going about the hidden but glorious business of being a fish. Their way of life is radically different from our own, in part because they inhabit a buoyant, sticky fluid in which light, heat, gases and sound behave in odd ways. They've evolved many tactics to overcome these challenges, to become megastars of the life sub-aquatic, and there are many different ways to be a fish; these extraordinary, diverse animals tell us so much about life, the oceans and everything.

Woven throughout will be stories of how fish have splashed into our world, and not simply as food. Our relationship with these scaly creatures goes much deeper than predator versus prey. Fish leave their mark on the human world.

As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals, and the seas, and to go out and appreciate the wildness and wonders of fish, whether through the glass walls of an aquarium or, better still, by gazing into the fishes' wild world and swimming through it.
10.99 In Stock
Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything

Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything

by Helen Scales
Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything

Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything

by Helen Scales

eBook

$10.99  $14.40 Save 24% Current price is $10.99, Original price is $14.4. You Save 24%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

There's something about fish that leaves a cold, slimy whiff in many people's minds. Either that, or fish are simply 'food'; catching fish to eat is so deeply ingrained that we fish for fish, but we don't pigeon a pigeon or deer a deer. It's difficult to think of fish as wild, living things, partly because those chunks of white meat on our plates are almost impossible to connect to animate, living, breathing creatures, in the same way a steak doesn't call to mind a mooing, cud-chewing cow.

To make matters worse, fish inhabit a realm beyond our normal, everyday experiences. Wild fish hover in seas, rivers and lakes, out of sight and out of mind. But from the very first time Helen Scales immersed herself into their liquid world, she realised that fish are beautiful, mesmerising, complex and exciting. The moment she sank down to eyeball a wild trout – the fish poised in front of her, expertly occupying the three-dimensional space in a way that she could only dream of imitating – sparked the ichthyologist within, and set in motion years of study and exploration in the fishes' unseen domain as she became a devoted fish-watcher.

In this book, Scales shares the secrets of fish, unhitching them from their reputation as cold-hearted, unknowable beasts and reinventing them as clever, emotional, singing, thoughtful animals, and challenging readers to rethink these animals. She takes readers on an underwater journey to watch these creatures going about the hidden but glorious business of being a fish. Their way of life is radically different from our own, in part because they inhabit a buoyant, sticky fluid in which light, heat, gases and sound behave in odd ways. They've evolved many tactics to overcome these challenges, to become megastars of the life sub-aquatic, and there are many different ways to be a fish; these extraordinary, diverse animals tell us so much about life, the oceans and everything.

Woven throughout will be stories of how fish have splashed into our world, and not simply as food. Our relationship with these scaly creatures goes much deeper than predator versus prey. Fish leave their mark on the human world.

As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals, and the seas, and to go out and appreciate the wildness and wonders of fish, whether through the glass walls of an aquarium or, better still, by gazing into the fishes' wild world and swimming through it.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781472936837
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 05/03/2018
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Helen Scales is a marine biologist, diver, surfer, broadcaster and writer who's spent hundreds of hours underwater watching fish. A familiar voice for the oceans, she's pondered the mysteries of the deep sea with Robin Ince and Brian Cox on BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage and donated an imaginary tank of seahorses to The Museum of Curiosity. She's a regular writer for BBC Focus and BBC Wildlife magazines. Among her radio documentaries she's explored the dream of living underwater and followed the trail of endangered snails around the world and back again.

Helen's book, Spirals in Time, is a Guardian bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Biology book prize, picked as a book of the year by The Economist, Nature, The Times and the Guardian and was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.

@helenscales / helenscales.com
Helen Scales is a marine biologist, writer and broadcaster. Her stories of the ocean appear in various publications including National Geographic Magazine, the Guardian and New Scientist. Among her books are the Guardian bestseller Spirals in Time, which was nominated for the Royal Society of Biology Book Award, New Scientist book of the year Eye of the Shoal, and The Brilliant Abyss.

Helen teaches at Cambridge University, is scientific advisor to the marine conservation charity Sea Changers, and divides her time between Cambridge, England and the French coast of Finistère.

@helenscales / helenscales.com

Table of Contents

Prologue: The wandering ichthyologist
Chapter 1: Ichthyo-curiosities
Sedna the sea goddess
Chapter 2: A view from the deep - introducing the fish
How the flounder lost its smile
Chapter 3: Outrageous acts of colour
The salmon of knowledge
Chapter 4: Illuminations
O-namazu
Chapter 5: Anatomy of a shoal
Osiris and the elephantfish
Chapter 6: Fish food
Vatnagedda
Chapter 7: Toxic fish
Chipfalamfula
Chapter 8: How fish used to be
The Doctor of the sea
Chapter 9: Fish symphonies
The fish and the golden shoe
Chapter 10: (Re)thinking fish
Epilogue
Appendix: Illustration species list
Glossary
Select bibliography and notes
Acknowledgements
Index
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews