xii INTRODUCTION 



d) Science and education. Parks serve as natural outdoor laboratories for 

 accumulating knowledge of the sea, for investigating methods of increasing 

 fisheries' productivity, for formulation of better conservation policy, and for 

 basic scientific research. 



2. Regulation of Spearfishing 



The pressures on fish populations exerted by increasing numbers of spear 

 fishermen have rendered many areas not worth visiting by the sightseer or 

 spearfisherman. Controlled spearing, however, will not diminish the population 

 of an area because it serves to take off some of the individuals that would 

 normally have died of natural causes. 



a) Licensing. Spearfishermen should be licensed in order to maintain control. 

 Funds derived should be used solely for conservation and enforcement. 



b) Regulating catch. Game fishes should be designated and for each of these, 

 season, bag, and minimum size limits should be established. The spearing of 

 small, non-game fishes such as angelfishes, butterflv fishes, etc., should be pro- 

 hibited. 



c) Designation of areas. Spearing should be restricted to outlying areas be- 

 cause, in general, spearfishermen are better divers than sightseers are, and 

 because any amount of spearing tends to make fishes become warv or drive them 

 off to deep waters. This would leave easily accessible waters for non-spear- 

 fishermen such as skin-divers, sightseers, naturalists, and photographers. 



Whether our inshore waters remain filled with life and a source of enjoyment 

 for present and future generations, or, whether they go the way our now com- 

 paratively barren forests and plains have gone, depends upon the instigation of 

 a conservation program immediatelv. 



How to use this Book 



This book is divided into three sections. The first section consists of chapters 

 on the sea as an environment for life, how life adapts to this environment, 

 dangers that exist in the sea for man, underwater photography, and evolution. 

 These chapters are included in order that the reader will better understand 

 the sea and its life and should be read before attempting to identify species or 

 groups or to interpret behavior. The last two sections are a guide to the identi- 

 fication and habits of groups of marine plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. 

 Because of the huge numbers of species in the sea (400 basses alone, for in- 

 stance), each group (family, order, etc.) is represented by only a few of its 

 commonest species which characterize the group as "types." Therefore, the 

 reader will not always be able to identify a particular species with this book, 

 but, by becoming familiar with the characteristics of a group, he can categorize 

 any species of that group he may come across anywhere in the world. Thus, the 

 ulua of Hawaii can be identified as a species of jack, the merou of the Medi- 

 terranean as a grouper, and Japan's tai as a porgy. Identification of groups is 

 made by characteristics recognizable in the field— silhouette, pattern, mo\'ement, 

 etc.— and not by laboratory methods such as fin counts or fine anatomy. Though 

 this book emphasizes groups rather than species, it is important that the reader 

 refer to a particular species in his observations of behavior. 



All of the species given as examples of groups are found in North American 



