Beachcomber's Guide to Gulf Coast Marine Life
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida
A practical field guide to the plants, fish, birds, and invertebrates of the Gulf Coast -- the kind of book that makes every anchorage more interesting and belongs in the cockpit, not the library.
This is a working guide, not a coffee table book. It covers the marine life you’ll actually encounter along the Gulf Coast – from the Texas bays all the way to the Florida Panhandle – with enough detail to identify what you’re seeing from the water or on a beach walk ashore.
Chapters cover wading birds, shorebirds, sea turtles, dolphins and manatees, fish of the nearshore waters, crabs, shrimp, jellyfish, sponges, corals, and the plants and grasses of coastal marshes. Each entry includes identification marks, habitat, behavior, and range. The photographs are clear and printed well enough to actually use in the field.
For Loopers making the Gulf crossing or hopping along the Intracoastal from Tarpon Springs to Mobile Bay, this is an excellent companion. The Gulf Coast can feel like a stretch to get through rather than linger in – this book will slow you down in the best way. Pick it up when you spot a tern colony roosting on a spoil island, or when something completely unfamiliar surfaces next to the boat.
Updated editions incorporate more recent ecological data on Gulf species affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.
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