How many sharks can you see? How many humpback whales can you find? What's that lurking behind the sunken shipwreck? Use your own special spotlight to see how many creatures you can find hiding in the ocean? Collect all 4 spotlight titles!
Each Spotlight title is carefully designed to introduce readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite birds and mammals. Otters by Nicola Chester is an accessible and lively account of an intriguing and much-loved animal that, surprisingly, is still endangered and rarely seen despite a recent resurgence that has seen it expand from the remote countryside into our cities. Nicola's charming, informed text brings this elusive and exciting mammal into sharper focus revealing what an otter is, and how they live, feed, play and breed. Nicola reflects on how otters exist in our imaginations culturally and how that has changed over the years. She also examines the many challenges otters have faced, exposing what brought them to the brink of extinction, and explores the challenges we face in trying to find and watch otters in the wild.
Seals are the sleekest and most agile of all marine mammals, and they are superbly adapted to the watery world in which they spend most of their time. With their whiskery dog-like faces, curious nature and vulnerable pups, they are enduringly appealing animals. Although air-breathing, seals are superbly tuned to hunt, sleep, mate and keep warm while out at sea, but they remain inextricably linked to land. In Spotlight Seals, Frances Dipper explores the intricate lives of the UK's native Grey and Common Seals and their amazing physical and behavioural adaptations to a life split between land and sea. She reveals the complex physiology that allows seals to dive deep and for long periods without coming to any harm. Once exploited for their meat and skins, seals now have protection around the British Isles. Their numbers are increasing, but they still face the danger of plastic litter in their environment. Dipper also explores age-old legends, interactions between humans and seals, and the best places to watch them in the UK. The Spotlight series introduces readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite animals with eye-catching colour photographs and informative expert text.
Puffins is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable expert. Enduringly popular, Puffins are perhaps our most iconic species of bird, and are the most immediately identifiable of seabirds with their decorative bills and clown-like gait. Yet when they take to the air they wheel and turn with great agility and underwater these stocky little birds use short specially adapted wings to propel themselves through the water in pursuit of small fish. Surprisingly little was known about Puffin ecology until recently thanks to their preferred breeding habitat being underground on remote islands or hard-to-reach coastlines. Now Euan Dunn discloses all we have learnt about them as a result of technological advances, and provides a revealing account of their life cycle, behaviour and breeding, what they eat, how they interact in their busy colonies, and where they migrate to in winter. Euan also exposes the mounting threats Puffins face and offers advice on the best places to see them. Each Spotlight title is carefully designed to introduce readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite birds and mammals.
Since the revival of Heathenry in the second half of the 20th century, much has been written about how the spiritual beliefs held by the people of Northern Europe in the early medieval period can be applied to our lives today. You will find books that explain the practicalities of modern Heathen ritual practices and how they compare to those conducted by our ancestors, books on the many deities and spirits and how they are still relevant today, and still more on how texts like the Hávamál can be applied to modern-day life. One area that has not been explored in as much detail up to this point is the relationship between Heathenry and the sea. This seems to be a glaring omission given how important the sea was to our Heathen ancestors. For many of our Scandinavian ancestors seafaring was a way of life. The sea was also important to others such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who took to the waves for a new life in the British Isles, and the Frisians who had an intimate relationship with the sea thrust upon them thanks to the low-lying lands they inhabited. This book explores many aspects of our relationship with water as humans and as Heathens. Drawing on sources from a wide range of disciplines, Heathenry & The Sea examines how water featured in the spiritual world view of our ancestors from the earliest humans, through the Heathen period and in to the Christianisation of Europe, whilst also bringing the discussion right up to date with the experiences of modern Heathens, as well as some of the scientific explanations for these intrinsic connections with water.
Dive into this uniquely elegant visual exploration of the sea An informative and utterly beautiful introduction to marine life and the ocean environment, Oceanology brings the riches of the underwater world onto the printed page. Astounding photography reveals an abundance of life, from microscopic plankton to great whales, seaweed to starfish. Published in association with the Smithsonian Institution, the book explores every corner of the oceans, from coral reefs and mangrove swamps to deep ocean trenches. Along the way, and with the help of clear, simple illustrations, it explains how life has adapted to the marine environment, revealing for example how a stonefish delivers its lethal venom and how a sponge sustains itself by sifting food from passing currents. It also examines the physical forces and processes that shape the oceans, from global circulation systems and tides to undersea volcanoes and tsunamis. To most of us, the marine world is out of reach. But with the help of photography and the latest technology, Oceanology brings us up close to animals, plants, and other living things that inhabit a fantastic and almost incomprehensibly beautiful other dimension.
Bioluminescent animals make their own light to survive. A firefly lights up the night sky, a foxfire mushroom sets the forest floor aglow and sea butterflies shine like beacons deep in the ocean. These glowing species are one of the most spectacular wonders of the natural world, and they are found on land, in the air and in the depths of the ocean. In Living Light, discover how and why bioluminescent creatures glow, and what that special ability can tell scientists about how diseases such as cancer and malaria spread in humans. These light makers are facing threats from the effects of climate change, pollution and loss of habitat, and they need our protection. Young readers will learn how they can shine a light on bioluminescent species and use citizen science to conserve their habitats and keep these creatures glowing into the future. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.
In 1984 Jesse Helms, television-commentator-turned-politician and high priest of the New Right in the U.S. Senate, and James Hunt Jr., North Carolina's first two-term governor in the twentieth century, clashed in a $22 million campaign that was the most costly race for a U.S. Senate seat in American history. The political brawl, featuring old-style tactics and the latest electronic techniques, reflected in microcosm many national and regional issues -- economic, social, racial, and religious. Originally published in 1985. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
**THE INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER** This is a tale of human obsession, one intrepid tuna, the dedicated fisherman who caught and set her free, the promises and limits of ocean science, and the big truth of how our insatiable appetite for bluefin transformed a cottage industry into a global dilemma. In 2004, an enigmatic charter captain named Al Anderson caught and marked one Atlantic bluefin tuna off New England’s coast with a plastic fish tag. Fourteen years later that fish—dubbed Amelia for her ocean-spanning journeys—died in a Mediterranean fish trap, sparking Karen Pinchin’s riveting investigation into the marvels, struggles, and prehistoric legacy of this remarkable species. Over his fishing career Al marked more than sixty thousand fish with plastic tags, an obsession that made him nearly as many enemies as it did friends. His quest landed him in the crossfire of an ongoing fight between a booming bluefin tuna industry and desperate conservation efforts, a conflict that is once again heating up as overfishing and climate change threaten the fish’s fate. Kings of Their Own Ocean is an urgent investigation that combines science, business, crime, and environmental justice. As Pinchin writes, “as a global community, we are collectively only ever a few terrible choices away from wiping out any ocean species.” Through her exclusive access and interdisciplinary, mesmerizing lens, readers will join her on boats and docks as she visits tuna hot spots and scientists from Portugal to Japan, New Jersey to Nova Scotia, and glimpse, as the author does, rays of dazzling hope for the future of our oceans.