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REVIEW: 
by Sally Crook 
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11 
For the Waterproof Identification 
Sheets to accompany the book A 
GUIDE TO THE SEASHORES OF 
EASTERN AFRICA AND THE 
WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS 
(Ed. M.D. Richmond. SIDA 1997) 
The six identification charts for plants and animals 
in the sea or near the shoreline of eastern Af rica 
are condensed versions of the colour plates in the 
Guide. Their range. from mangroves to seaweeds, 
and from invertebrates to marine mammals, is 
wider than often found on ID charts capable of 
being taken into the field (that is. into the sea). 
Most others concentrate on the varieties of fish 
species, with few chans on plants, or corals and 
other invertebrates, and I have seen no waterproof 
charts lor bird and mammal identification These 
are a useful innovation and save textbooks from 
getting wet whilst splashing on foot through 
mangroves or observing whales from a boat in a 
lively sea. 
The sheet illustrations are smaller than in the 
Guide, and sen e best as a reminder of the plants 
and creatures observed until information can be 
read-up in the Guide at home. However, an 
indication of the size of creatures would have been 
useful as the small chromis and damsel fish are 
shown almost as large as porcupine fish, and the 
sea slugs us large as the giant clams < wrongly 
labelled on the sheet). 
The sheets have something the Guide does not 
Tli.it is the common English names of seaweeds, 
and corals and some other invertebrates. Finding 
from the plant ID sheet that the globular green 
seaweed. Vent rial ria ivntricosa. is also known as 
Sailor’s eyeball acts as a great memory Inioster. 
