What is a cartilaginous fish?

Nationalnyckeln (NN) is an encyclopedia dealing with various groups of animals and plants found in the Nordic countries, principally Sweden. NN is a work in progress, and currently 17 volumes have been published. Originally, NN was supposed to become a mammoth work covering all (!) species of organisms found in Sweden, but it's not clear at the present time whether this goal will ever be reached.

This volume, codenamed DZ 1-34, was intended as the first one covering chordates (including vertebrates), and it therefore contains an extensive introduction to this group of creatures. This explains the otherwise curious presence of dinosaurs and other seemingly irrelevant animals in a book supposedly about fish!

Yes, fish. “What *is* a fish” wonders NN at its homepage, and after leafing through this volume, I can only concur with the questioner. Some of the creatures included are positively disgusting, such as the lampreys and the hagfish. Others are spectacular: the blue shark, the Greenland shark and the basking shark are among those. The volume also describes tunicates, which despite their anomalous looks are evolutionarily closer to fish than to invertebrates. For those interested in such things, here follows an exact breakdown of the contents: lancelets (1 species), tunicates (53 species), hagfish (1 species), lampreys (3 species), cartilaginous fishes (29 species).

Yes, it's in color. And no, it's not really bilingual, the only English texts being in the identification keys and very short species summaries. Still, deserves five stars.

The cryptid connection

In my previous review of "River Monsters", I pointed out that it was about real "monsters" a.k.a. out-sized fish, not about cryptids á la the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot. Not that I mind cryptids - I'm an avid watcher of ripped "Finding Bigfoot" episodes on Youtube, but I somehow got the impression that alligator gars, bull sharks or killer catfish might be somewhat deadlier than Nessie or Matilda the sleeping sasquatch!

However, it seems "River Monsters" just couldn't let the cryptid angle alone.

This season includes an episode called "Alaskan Horror", in which Jeremy Wade travels to Lake Iliamna in Alaska to investigate local legends about a lake monster with a somewhat more fierce reputation than good ol' Nessie. Unfortunately, he never catches it. Incidentally, as an arm-chair crypto-zoologist, I happen to believe in the same theory about the real identity of the monster as Wade - it's probably a jumbo sized white sturgeon unknown to science (and the Russian caviar industry).

Otherwise, I must say that I'm surprised Wade hasn't been killed or seriously injured when taping this series. I wonder how his body guards look like? Like Bigfoot? In two episodes, Wade actually goes to the Congo River, flanked by two nations rocked by brutal civil wars: Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. Joseph Conrad, are you listening? In "Rift Valley Killers", our valiant fisher king makes a landfall at the Rift Valley in Ethiopia, where he encounters crocodiles in the bush, short-tempered hippos and a community of fugitives wanted by the law who are trying to eek out an existence in the forbidding area (presumably Ethiopian prisons are even worse!). "Death Ray" takes Wade to Thailand, where he was once arrested, suspected of being a Communist spy. Undaunted, he just has to travel upstream the Mekong River to the border with Laos, still a Vietnamese ally. This time, he avoids arrest, and later witnesses the live birth of two cute little stingrays. Well, what a contrast to the other episodes!

I admit I'm something of a free-loader when it comes to "River Monsters". I usually watch ripped episodes free of charge over at Youtube. Unfortunately for me, most episodes of this particular season only exist in dub versions, and I'm afraid my French, Spanish and Byelorussian (?) is somewhat rusty. With that caveat, I will nevertheless award Jeremy Wade's extreme angles...(pun sort of intended)...five stars.

Please fry them next time

Stanislav Frank's “Pictorial Encyclopedia of Fishes” is based on the same concept as the similar books on birds or insects, reviewed by me elsewhere. Little text, many photos, but most of them in black and white only. Personally, I don't think this volume is as stunning as the two others, perhaps because most of the fish seem to be photographed in aquariums (or in caught condition on the shore). But then, I'm not very interested in fish anyway. Except in fried condition, ha ha.

A fishy book

"Fiskarna i färg" is a Swedish book, first published in 1953. For reasons best known to themselves, Amazon actually carries the 1961 edition. My copy is from 1975. The book is part of a whole series of (probably worthless) field guides found in most public libraries in Sweden when I grew up. In fact, the "Färgserien" series may have been the first book on wild animals and nature I've leafed through as a kid. Ah, this product really brings back some memories!

This volume, written by Kai Curry-Lindahl, deals with the fish of the Nordic countries. Both Agnatha, Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes are covered. Or jawless, cartilaginous and bony fishes, if you're Latin is a bit rusty.

The book looks really old fashioned, with rather rough colour plates separated from the main text, which is super-serious and surprisingly detailed. There are even (Swedish?) pronunciation guides to the Latin names! Another annoying anachronism is that not all species are illustrated. The colour plates are adequate, but not much more - but then, Swedes who grew up during the 1970's and 1980's were spoiled by Lars Jonsson's and Bo Mossberg's superbly illustrated and almost artful nature books. Compare to these, Henning Anthon's illustrations look like the work of an amateur.

Since "Fiskarna i färg" is in Swedish, I'm not sure who would want to buy the last copy, but Amazon sells everything...and I review (almost) everything.

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

A fake review of "Sharks, Skates and Rays of the Gulf of Mexico: A Field Guide". 

This is an excellent field guide if you ever find yourself swimming across the Bermuda triangle after a plane crash, and want to know what's eating your left leg HA HA HA HA HA

:P