A profitable field guide

"Marine Fauna and Flora of Bermuda" by Wolfgang Sterrer is a macro-field guide covering 740 full-sized pages. Over 1500 species are described, most never before included in a general guide. Since many of the organisms in the waters of Bermuda can also be found in the West Indies or southeastern United States, the field guide can be used profitably in those areas, as well.

There are 228 black-and-white plates and 16 colour plates. The latter show invertebrates. Weirdly, each plate has a private corporate sponsor! Thus, the Bank of Bermuda sponsors the plate showing sea hares and other sea slugs. Thank you. By contrast, the Bank of Butterfield brings us sea squirts. It seems this work is "profitable" in more ways than one...

Organisms featured in this volume include cyanobacteria, fungi, lichens, amoebas, bristle worms, beard worms, spoon worms and (surprise) round worms. Biggest surprise: the Belted Kingfisher.

The Bermuda Triangle might indeed be dangerous, but perhaps not in the sense we expected!