Originally published as The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sharks (Alpha/Penguin) in 2003, this new text includes updated information, all presented in non-scientific terminology, including new shark species as well as up close and personal shark encounters experienced by the author as well as her dive buddies and others. One of the early recreational divers to venture into a shark cage, Mary Peachin has expanded on many personal up-close underwater encounters with dozens of shark species to include all-encompassing, non-scientific information about sharks.

Moving to Whidbey Island, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, I met Monte Merserve and this is where the first chapter begins. Since then I still teach ARC Swim Lessons to others, and became a PADI Swim Instructor teaching scuba diving for fifteen years . Since then Ive been Scuba Diving around the world and meeting new friends in the World of waters. In this book I share stories of these underwater encounters both exciting and exhilarating. I also provided photos of these events, including my dive of a lifetime adventure in Antartica. ~ Virginia Huerlin Long Cross (PADI #3271) ~

Cinematic Encounters with Disaster takes Hollywood's disaster movies and their codified versions of natural disaster, post-apocalyptic survival, and extra-terrestrial threat as the starting point for an analytical trajectory that works toward new understandings of how cinema shapes and informs our conceptions of disaster and catastrophe. It examines a range of films from distinct regional and industrial contexts: Hollywood, indie movies, different kinds of documentaries from the US and elsewhere, and auteurist-realist cinema from Europe and Asia. Moving across and beyond critical and industrial categories that often inform thinking about cinema, this book contends that different approaches to film style can push us to imagine disaster in distinct ways, with distinct ethical connotations. Framed by contemporary concerns around the global climate crisis and the advent of the Anthropocene, questions about how films can best offer responses to historical exigency guide the book's explorations of spectacular 2010s blockbusters like Gravity (2013) and San Andreas (2015), environmental documentaries including the paradigmatic An Inconvenient Truth (2006), post-disaster films by auteurs including Abbas Kiarostami and Lav Diaz, and more. Conceiving of disaster as intersubjective ethics between humans and nonhuman alterity – forces of nature, errant technology, monsters, ghosts, and other entities – it analyses how formal techniques and narrative strategies render encounters in which human protagonists are confronted with the threat of death and respond in ways that can be instructive for our planet's present juncture.

Visitor Encounters with the Great Barrier Reef explores how visitor encounters have shaped the history and heritage of the Reef. Moving beyond the visual aesthetic significance, the book highlights the importance of multi-sensuous experiences in understanding the region as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, the book describes how visitors have experienced the Great Barrier Reef through personal embodied encounters and the mechanisms they have used to understand, access and share these experiences with others. Illustrating how such experiences contribute to a knowledge of place, Pocock also explores the vital role of reproduction and photography in sharing experiences with those who have never been there. The second part of the book analyses visitor experiences and demonstrates how they underpin three key frames through which the Reef is understood and valued: the islands as paradise, the underwater coral gardens, and the singular Great Barrier Reef. Acknowledging that these constructs are increasingly removed from human experience, Pocock demonstrates that they are nevertheless integral to recognition of the region as a World Heritage Site. Demonstrating how experiences of the Reef have changed over time, Visitor Encounters with the Great Barrier Reef should be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of heritage studies, history and tourism. It should also be of interest to heritage practitioners working around the globe.

Brings together contributions from 68 leading scientists from 12 countries to provide an up-to-date review on the way we manage our interactions with whales, dolphins, seals and dugongs.

The Ocean and Us provides an overview of our contemporary understanding of the ocean and all the ways our lives interact with it. It is intended for everyone with an interest in our blue planet. The book brings together the expertise of over 35 ocean specialists from around the world. It explores a wide variety of themes including the importance of a healthy ocean in the fight to halt and contain climate change. It covers issues such as overfishing and pollution, as well as emerging themes such as the blue economy, marine animal welfare and how we can leverage innovation to protect the ocean. The book provides an overview of some of the world’s iconic threatened and at risk ocean ecosystems, and outlines current governance structures and ocean management tools. It also discusses the important social dimensions between people and the ocean, such as ocean and human wellbeing, communities and the ocean, and who gets to participate in the ocean space. The book aims to enhance ocean literacy by making specialist concepts accessible to non-experts, with a view to empowering concerned citizens everywhere to come into action for the ocean, and pave a better way forward for humanity.