Water Sports category: 1998 books

First published in 1951, this is the autobiography of Admiral Lord Mountevans, and it is indeed a tale of high spirits. The writer has a fine sense of adventure, and he revels in the excitement of the incredibly beautiful scenes which were frequently encountered. As he states himself in the opening—“If...

This is your complete guide to Diving at the London Summer Olympics. Learn about diving, who is on the American Olympic team and which athletes to expect on the podium. This guide is your complete insider look at Diving in the 2012 London Olympics. Includes tips on how to become an Olympic diver!

The Farrell name is respected all along the British Columbia coast. Barrie’s father, Allen Farrell, was a much loved eccentric who created offshore sailing vessels from beachcombed lumber using only basic hand tools. Barrie built his first boat in his early teens using only a dull handsaw,...

Are you looking for a journey that will take you through Greatest Olympic Divers to Ever Compete: Top 100, along with funny comments and a word puzzle? Then this book is for you. Whether you are looking at this book for curiosity, choices, options, or just for fun; this book fits any criteria. Creating...

From his days as a cadet on the aging training ship Worcester, Captain Philip Rentell's forty-year career has spanned the world's oceans and a huge variety of seagoing experience. He served as a junior officer on numerous freighters and liners, as the navigator of cross-Channel hovercraft, and then...

One topic that caught my eye was a study about the changes in the population of yellow stingrays in various parts of the Caribbean.  Why should we care about yellow stingrays? In this study, published in the scientific journal Environmental Biology of Fishes, Reef Environmental Education Foundation...

At Atlantis Dumaguete, I saw a whole host of things I’d never had the opportunity to photograph before. The mandarin fish mating dance, a pregnant mantis shrimp, a blue ribbon eel and sea snakes are the most memorable to me. Lots of pipefish, sea horses and nudibranchs live in the seagrass, which...

"While I was researching goatfish for the last column, I realized there is another group I have not paid enough attention to in my reef travels. Wrasses. This is a large and diverse family. Wrasses seem to be everywhere. They are quick and colorful. Perhaps some of the most vibrant colors on our reefs...

There are a few places in the outer edges of the Florida Keys reef tract that are a whole different world. Deep French, Deep Elbow and Deep Molasses are quite different than the shallower namesakes. The contours begin around 50 feet, and usually bottom out in the 80 to 90 foot range. Nitrox is the...

"Classified as a “nuclear” species, goatfish truly play a leadership role. Other species are attracted to the substratum-disturbing foraging. And when several goatfish are involved in the fray, the groupies increase in number and diversity.Single goatfish usually have up to three “follower”...

When I’m on the reef and I want a chuckle, I look for a fish in a box. Not a cardboard box of fish like you find in the bait shop, but a body box that fits perfectly and is color matched to its occupant. I bet I have seen some sort of fish in a box on every dive. On some occasions we find juveniles,...

"While the vast majority of observations during the day are while eels are resting or on a cleaning station, a few times I have seen an eel coupled with a grouper. The first time I saw this was on the Winch Hole. A graysby came to a stop on a pile of rubble, and a goldentail came out from its lair....

Cleaning stations are an essential element in reef ecology. All three parties - cleaners, clients and parasites - are part of a big matrix that runs the gamut from mutually beneficial to intrusive or harmful. When I first began my research, I thought this would be a no-brainer. A fish or turtle pulls...

"As Dr. Kelble points out, the variability of salinity levels in Florida Bay is incredibly important to the food chain. What does this have to do with minnows? Well, everything. He examined the relationship between mesozooplankton, salinity and bay anchovies.What follows is a massive oversimplification...