A book to open your eyes to the mysterious creatures of the sea

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 11:15am

The Midcoast region of Maine is full of people who make their living from the sea or who just love being near the sea. Our own family histories are rich with past and present-day sea captains, fishermen, and lovers of the ocean, and we place ourselves in that latter category. Whether your time on or near the ocean is for professional reasons or for enjoyment, you know that there are wonderful, often mysterious creatures that make their homes there. It is not an uncommon experience, when out on the water, to spot something, perhaps a fin in the distance between the waves or a bird gliding into the glare on a brilliant sunny day. Or maybe you are lucky enough to see a whale up close, or what seems like it might be a puffin bobbing beside the boat. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a small compact book handy that would help you figure out what you just saw?

You are in luck! Such a book exists: “Offshore Sea Life ID Guide – East Coast,” by Steve Howell and Brian Sullivan, published by Princeton University Press. The book is written by well-known birding authors and includes versions for both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. The East Coast version covers the offshore region extending from Maine to Florida. The book is a slim, 64 pages but is filled with more than 100 great and interesting photos. The authors provide an engaging introduction that opens the eyes to the wonders and mysteries of the sea, with photos that illustrate the ecology of the ever-changing ocean environment. The section on marine mammals includes about 25 species, from large finback whales and humpbacks to the much smaller harbor porpoise as well as many species that occur in our area only rarely or well offshore. One feature we like in the marine mammal section is that the photographs show the animals as you would be likely to see them, which often means just the dorsal fin and the back. The authors explain, in simple descriptions, how even with this view you can identify what you are seeing or at least narrow it down to a few possibilities.

The largest part of the book covers 35 or so bird species that can be found at sea, most of which occur regularly off the Maine coast. This includes familiar birds like the Atlantic puffin (but you might be surprised to see what they look like in winter!) and the common tern but also some you might not know as well such as Cory’s shearwater (we saw some in Muscongus Bay last summer) and South Polar skua (yes, these can be seen off of Maine in summer).

The sections of the book that illuminate some of the other creatures that are possible to find off the East Coast are probably our favorite. Just to know that there are things like flying squid and flying fish, occasional sea turtles, by-the-wind-sailor and lion’s mane jellyfish, and big fish like ocean sunfish, sailfish, and giant manta rays, makes the next boat trip seem open to exciting possibilities.

The back inside cover of the book is taken up with a map of the Atlantic Coast and shows four ports in Maine where boats offer whale watching and offshore birding. The only disappointment with the book is that the map somehow has left off both the Boothbay Harbor whale watches and the New Harbor Hardy Boat puffin cruises—a shame, as we can personally attest that these cruises are fantastic.

For anyone who plans to spend any time on the water, we recommend keeping a copy of “Offshore Sea Life ID Guide – East Coast” at your fingertips!

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”