The Bay Area Diver's
Bibliography

You can get most of these books from your local Dive Shop or from the gift shop at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Out of print books may be available through Amazon.com.

Northern California Dive Guides

A Diver's Guide to Monterey County, California, Bruce Watkins, 1997, ISBN 0-9628600-1-8

Diving & Snorkeling Monterey Peninsula & Northern California, Steve Rosenberg, 3rd Edition, 2000, ISBN 0-86442-775-1

A Diver's Guide to Northern California, Bruce Watkins, 2000, ISBN 0-9628600-2-6.

Northern California Critter ID

The Audubon Society Nature Guides, Pacific Coast, Bayard H. McConnaughey and Evelyn McConnaughey, 1985 (there may be a newer edition) ISBN 0-394-73130-1

Certainly More Than You Want to Know About The Fishes of The Pacific Coast, A Postmodern Experience, Milton S. Love, ISBN 978-0-9628725-6-3.

Coastal Fish Identification, California to Alaska, Paul Humann, 1996, ISBN 1-878348-12-4. Probably the easiest book to find a fish you saw in -- it's organized by what it looks like, not scientific family. There's a new 2008 edition, but I don't have the detalis.

Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs, David W. Behrens and Alicia Hermosillo, 2005, ISBN 0-930118-36-7

Guide to Marine Invertebrates, Alaska to Baja California, Daniel E. Gotshall, 1994, ISBN 0-930118-19-7

Intertidal Invertebrates of California, Morris, Abbott, and Haderlie, Stanford University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-8047-1045-7. "The Bible" of local critters living in shallow water. Some animals commonly seen by divers are omitted, because these tidepoolers never saw them. Color photos of every animal, sometimes the pictures are misleading because they were shot in lab dishes. Biology nerds should know that some of the information and scientific names have been updated since 1980.

Nudibranch Behavior, David W Behrens, 2005, ISBN1-878348-41-8

Pacific Coast Crabs and Shrimps, Gregory C. Jensen, 1995, ISBN 0-930118-20-0

Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes, Daniel W. Gotshall, 2001, Fourth Edition (revised), ISBN 0-930118-32-4

Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates, A Guide to the Common Gelatinous Animals (that means jellies), David Wrobel and Claudia Mills, 1998, ISBN 0-930118-23-5

Pacific Coast Nudibranchs, David W. Behrens, 1991, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0-930118-17-0. Superceded by Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs above.

Probably More Than You Want To Know About The Fishes Of The Pacific Coast, Robin Milton Love, Really Big Press, 1991, ISBN 0-9628725-4-7. A very entertaining (really) volume that lives up to its title. The copious illustrations are pen and ink, limiting the book's value as an ID guide. The newer second edition has some color plates.

Miscellaneous Northern California

A Living Bay: The Underwater World of Monterey Bay, Lovell Langstroth and Libby Langstroth, UC Press, 2000, ISBN: 0-520-21686-5 (hardback), 0-520-22149-4 (paperback).

Shipwrecks and Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast, by Randall A. Reinstedt, Ghost Town Publications, 1975, ISBN 0-933818-05-X

Weather and Sea Conditions

Waves and Beaches, Willard Bascom, 1980, ISBN 0-385-14844-5 (out of print, try Amazon's bookfinder service).

Boating

ABCs of the California Boating Law, 1997, free from California Department of Boating and Waterways, 1629 S Street, Sacramento, CA 95814-7291. This is the boating equivalent of the the DMV manual you study before you take the Driver License test.

Chapman Piloting, Seamanship & Small Boat Handling, Elbert S. Maloney, 1999, 63nd (!!) Edition, ISBN 0-688-16890-6. Usually known as just "Chapman". The first edition of this book was a pamphlet by Charles F. Chapman written for the U. S. Navy during World War One. This one goes through a new edition ever couple of years, so the 1999 edition won't be the latest, just the one on my shelf.

Skipper's Safe Boating Course, U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, 1996, ISBN 0-8151-4589-6. Best described as "Boating for Dummies".

Boating Skills and Seamanship, U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, 1995, 11th edition, ISBN 0-930038-03-01. This is the text book for the USCGA's class of the same name.

Boat Owner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual, How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's Essential Systems, Nigel Calder, 1996, 2nd edition, ISBN 0-07-009618-X. Usually known as just "Calder".

Dive Travel Farther Afield

Undercurrent Magazine, published monthly, http://www.undercurrent.org/

The Travellin' Diver's Chapbook, published annually by Undercurrent Magazine, http://www.undercurrent.org/

Diving in General - Basic Stuff

U. S. Navy Diving Manual, http://www.eodmu7.navy.mil/militarydivingmanual.exe (downloadable self-extracting zip file)

Diving in General - More Technical Stuff

SCUBA Regulator Maintenance and Repair, Vance Harlow, 1999, ISBN 0-9678873-0-5

Oxygen Hacker's Companion, Vance Harlow, 1998, Third Edition, ISBN ???

Divelight Companion, How to Maintain, Repair, and Build Canister Divelights, Steve Lindblom, 2000, ISBN 0-9678873-1-3

Diving Physiology in Plain English, Jolie Bookspan, Ph.D., 1995, ISBN 0-930406-13-3

The Practice of Oxygen Measurement for Divers, J. S. Lamb, 1999, ISBN 0-941442-68-3.

Deeper Into Diving, John Lippmann, 1990, ISBN 0-9590396-3-8

Underwater Photography

The Nikonos Handbook, Jim and Cathy Church, 1986, ISBN 0-9616093-0-3. Out of print, but Backscatter has it now and then. I like it better than his newer book because it has instructions on how to field strip a flooded Nikonos.

Guide to Successful Underwater Photography, Howard Hall, 1982, ISBN 0-932248-03-9. Out of print.

The Bay Area Diver's Bibliography