04 May 2017
Sex in the Sea
Marah J Hardt
Salty tails and serious purpose
Reviewed by Neil Dunlop
This glimpse under the surface will have you marvelling at the sheer variety of life and hoping that it survives. Written in a light-hearted style that is suitable for a bedtime read, Marah J Hardt takes you on an tour that reveals much about the ecology of the seas. From temporary marriages among Atlantic lobsters to group sex amongst groupers and long distance penetration by barnacles, 500 years of evolution has missed no opportunity.
You may raise the book to read about sex but, gently, you will become acquainted with its serious side, how knowing about its myriad ways can help to sustain ecological diversity by protecting habitats, and how much of life is fragile under the surface. The overall message is of progress towards understanding and intelligently managing mankind’s impact on this vast and most varied of habitats. Sex in the Sea is an amusing way to get up to date on a vast and diverse field of research.
Many surprises are in store for you here: molluscs that choose their sex according to the number of males and females in their colony, female fish which change sex when their partner is eaten, parthenogenetic sharks and worms whose sex flip flops. This romp is published by St Martin’s Press in New York, 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-27997-2 (hardcover), ISBN 981-1-4668-7922-5 (e-book).
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