Coast of Coral (The Blue Planet Trilogy, Volume 1)

Rating:
Summary: different side of a well known author
Review: love it!!!!!
happened upon it in a small bookstore in providence ri.....
big fan of marine historical stories and this is definately one of them!!!!!
plus i am a a.c.clarke science fiction fan too...so great to see different side of the man....
quite humourous to see the differences in tech and thinking about diving...
love it.....cannot wait for the third in the series to be reprinted!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating but dated look at underwater life.
Review: Originally published in 1955, The Coast of Coral is an account of Arthur C. Clarke's exploration of the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of Australia. He describes the large variety of coral found during his many dives there, along with fish and other inhabitants of the reef, including several shark encounters, all accompanied by sixteen pages of B&W photos. The book is somewhat of a look into the past, as much of the reef has now been destroyed by careless tourists, some fishing methods, pollution, and the more natural ravages of weather. Also dated is activity like eating sea turtle eggs, and walking on the reef, which the author retracts in his recently written introduction. Clarke touches on Australian culture and there are several chapters on pearl diving. Unfortunately there are a few typos, seemingly common in ibooks publications. An example from page 32 shows editors can't just rely on spellcheckers: "...if the hark did appear, I was chiefly anxious to get him in the game picture as Mike..." While the reader should be able to determine what is meant, these errors are irritating and could easily have been eliminated with better proofreading.