Helmut Debelius

Even though the title says Nudibranch and Sea Snails, the book actually covers the whole Class Gastropods, which include the Subclass Prosobranchia (abalone, limpets, snails and many type of sea shells), Subclass Heterobranchia and Subclass Opisthobranchia (sea slugs, including nudibranch).

Again, as with his other books, this one has over 1000 photos printed in good quality hardbound paper. Each species is described with one to three photos and a concise text. The boxed picture stories provide brilliant views of various gastropod behaviour.

This book became my nudibranch and sea shell bible for quite a while. It seems though that the book needs upgrading, and indeed Debelius is preparing an updated version that will come out next year. The upgrade is needed as with the rising popularity of nudibranch, a lot more information has been obtained and research done, resulting in changes in taxonomy and new species identified. For example, in this book there’s a special section showing the variety of colours of Hypselodoris bullockii. Now it seems that only one of them is classified as Hyselodoris bullockii and the darker purple nudibranch that in this book is pictured as the typical H bullockii is now called H apolegma.

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This book covers the crustaceans found in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean (including the Red Sea) and Atlantic Ocean (including the Mediterranean). He explained that as not all the marine crustaceans have common names, he decided to list the creatures in their Latin names instead. This has an added advantage in that the book is useful for any divers speaking any languages. Common names are included wherever available.

Not many books are available out there that specifically deals with shrimps, crabs, lobsters and mantis shrimps; hence this book is very useful. The coverage is quite comprehensive even though sometimes we still can’t find some of the more obscure ones.

As with his other books this one looks similar with similar looking cover and binding. More than 1000 photographs and concise text help to identify the many crustaceans found during a dive. The signature picture story text boxes offer articles on various interesting crustacean behaviour.
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This book is a kind of companion book to the Asia Pacific Reef Guide by the same author. Debelius is an ichtyologist, marine naturalist and well known underwater photographer. He is also the proprietor of IKAN Unterwasser-Archiv publishing company based in Germany, which publishes his many books.

Just like the Asia Pacific version, the book has the same multitude of good quality photographs both his own and donated by other renowned photographers. Each species has one to three photos accompanied by a concise text. This book covers the Indian Ocean and its rim, from the eastern coast of Africa, to Sri Lanka, Thailand and the western coast of Sumatra. As some of the creatures living in the Asia Pacific waters are also found in the Indian Ocean, the book features some creatures that are found in the other book. However this one of course has more pelagic creatures as it is cover an ocean.

The boxed picture stories in this book, just like in the other one, also provide interesting and informative reading. A variety of conservation and marine creature behaviour little stories adds to our knowledge. This includes an article on overfishing and another on monsoon.

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This excellent hardcover bound book has over 1000 photos printed in high quality paper. The book is extensive, covering not only fishes but also other marine creatures from the phyla arthropods, molluscs, cnidarians, echinoderms, flatworms, sponges and chordates. With such a wide variety of creatures, some of the obscure ones might not be found here. However the common ones are well covered and most creatures we see in a dive are easily found.

The creatures found in the book are from the Asia Pacific region which covers Southern Japan, Southern China and Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the western Micronesian islands of Yap and Palau.

The book has 21 text boxes scattered throughout the pages with picture stories that provide quite interesting and informative reading. One example is ‘The Sensual Sea’ which is a 6 page article with good photos describing the underwater sex scenes. Some other deal with conservation issue; and still other deal with a more in depth look at different marine creature behaviour. One of the most interesting of the picture stories is one on dangerous marine creatures which include accounts of several unlucky divers too close encounter with the like of lionfish and stonefish.

The book is a bit pricey but considering the quality of the binding, paper, photographs and the information contained, it is well worth it.
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