Pacific field books

[schultz]

Heya everyone,

My wife and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary, and our treat to one another is a trip this September to Fiji for about 2 weeks. One thing I'm worried about though is our lack of ability of identifying specific Pacific reef fish - something we're both pretty good at in the Caribbean. Our first ever dive in the Pacific was one of newly certified divers pointing at various species going... "It's a... a... a... fish! And there's another fish, but different from the first!" I fear the same thing may happen on this trip.

To that end (Colin, I'm hoping you can help me on this one) I'm wondering if anyone has any recomendations for Fish, Coral, and Invertebrate identification books for the region. I'm planning on getting the 'Reef Fish Identification - Tropical Pacific' by Paul Humann (his books rock), but it appears that he has none for corals or invertebrates for the locale. Anyone have any recommendations for such books specific to Fiji or the area?

Thanks in advance.

[Carvendive]

Although not a book, you can use

for a starter.  Scroll down to Information by Country/Island.  They may also have links to some books for the area you are headed to.
If you need a good slug site (or two) or information specific to the Pacific Northwest let me know!

PS What are the current speeds through Macinaw straits (in lake Michigan) and do they Ebb and Flood?  (I'm moving back next year but last dove Lake Superior in the early 70's).

We get some great drift dives out here in the Tacoma narrows and Agatte pass (sp).  Deception pass is out of my league as it's so fast you can also get violent up and down wellings.

[schultz]

Thanks for the info on fishbase.org. It's a pretty neat site, but a little difficult to take offline if you know what I mean.

Ebb and Flood in the great lakes - not much really. While the tidal currents in the Great Lakes are weak as compared with ocean currents, air pressure changes have a larger effect on tides and currents in the great lakes.  The Great Lakes can form seiches—oscillations of surface water that can change water levels by three feet in just moments. A seiche (French meaning “to sway back and forth”) is formed when wind and air pressure change and cause the surface of a lake to rock back and forth.

When in doubt though, you can always check with NOAA:

We get some great drift dives out here in the Tacoma narrows and Agatte pass (sp).  Deception pass is out of my league as it's so fast you can also get violent up and down wellings.

Yeah, I've been diving in the San Juans and Hood River Canal out there in the past year or so. Great diving. I have yet to do the Narrows, but I'm told that seeing the bridge down there is pretty neat. Personally I really would love to do Lake Washington and try to locate some of the aircrafts (ala Boeing and Navy planes once based at the old Sand Point Naval Air Station)  that have crashed in that lake over the last 50 years... I've met some of the people that have dove it and said it was totally awesome.

Man, I gotta get out to Seattle again...

[Carvendive]

If you are looking to hook up with the folks that dive the plane wrecks in Lake Washington, 5th Dimension dive shop in Issaquah has a lot of tech divers that dive them regularly.


After 20 years of diving Lake Superior I've been sticking to saltwater and U/W Photography.  And now with heading back to the Great Lakes I'll be getting in as much "salt" time as possible before the move!

Hey, do any of you do any spearfishing trips down to the Carolinas or the Middle Banks (Fla.)?  This may be a stupid question but is there any interest in spearfishing (maybe pike) in any of the local lakes back there?