Sensuous seas : tales of a marine biologist / Eugene H. Kaplan ; drawings by Sandy Chichester Rivkin and Susan L. Kaplan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaplan, Eugene H. (Eugene Herbert), 1932-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marine biology.

Sexual behavior in animals.

Marine biology--Anecdotes.

Sexual behavior in animals--Anecdotes.

Kaplan, Eugene H. (Eugene Herbert), 1932-.

Kaplan, Eugene H.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (286 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Learning marine biology from a textbook is one thing. But take readers to the bottom of the sea in a submarine to discover living fossils or to coral reefs to observe a day in the life of an octopus, and the sea and its splendors come into focus, in brilliant colors and with immediacy. In Sensuous Seas, Eugene Kaplan offers readers an irresistibly irreverent voyage to the world of sea creatures, with a look at their habitats, their beauty and, yes, even their sex lives. A marine biologist who has built fish farms in Africa and established a marine laboratory in Jamaica, Kaplan takes us to oceans across the world to experience the lives of their inhabitants, from the horribly grotesque to the exquisitely beautiful. In chapters with titles such as "Fiddler on the Root" (reproductive rituals of fiddler crabs) and "Size Does Count" (why barnacles have the largest penis, comparatively, in the animal kingdom), Kaplan ventures inside coral reefs to study mating parrotfish; dives 740 feet in a submarine to find living fossils; explains what results from swallowing a piece of living octopus tentacle; and describes a shark attack on a friend. The book is a sensuous blend of sparkling prose and 150 beautiful illustrations that clarify the science. Each chapter opens with an exciting personal anecdote that leads into the scientific exploration of a distinct inhabitant of the sea world--allowing the reader to experience firsthand the incredible complexity of sea life. A one-of-a-kind memoir that unfolds in remarkable reaches of ocean few of us can ever visit for ourselves, Sensuous Seas brings the underwater world back to living room and classroom alike. Readers will be surprised at how much marine biology they have learned while being amused.

Contents:

The perils of teaching

Deadly darts

The great jade green octopus hunt

Bedtime stories

Garden of Eden : the death apple and the tree of life

A true romance story

Elixir of love

Skinny South Sea sausages

The only male reproductive organ with a name

Living lance

Role reversal

Super male

Miracle fish

Fugu

Bunnies of the sea

Passion for purple

Size does count

Fiddler on the root

Beware the duppy

The secret of an improved sex life

How to court a female

The anti-BLB club

Sea pussy

Debunking the big lie

A peek into the anus of a sea cucumber

The yellow submarine

The perils of vanity

Sexually repressed Victorian taxonomists

Random ramblings on relationships

Penile bloodletting

Death and confusion

Eyeball to eyeball.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612531644

9781282531642

1282531646

9781400835645

140083564X

OCLC:

593341596