A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Alaska to California, by Val Kells, Luiz A. Rocha and Larry G. Allen

A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Alaska to California is a welcome addition to the existing guides to fishes in this region. The sheer number of species included in this compact volume is incredible and the authors deftly balanced the need to be comprehensive with providing enough detail to be helpful. The book will be useful for biologists, scuba divers, fishermen, and other marine enthusiasts, thanks to its manageable size and breadth.

The book is primarily a field guide, with little additional information. While some introductory material describes the range included and characteristics of fishes in general, the focus is largely on the individual species found along this coast. The introductory explanations of colour patterns and the accompanying illustrations are helpful for understanding subtle differences. Also, the overview of the families serves to organize the rest of the presentation, while reminding us how many cottids and scorpaenids there are in these waters! In the listings of individual species (organized by family), there are notes on ‘Features’ and ‘Habitat’, with occasional additional information on ‘Biology’. The ‘Features’ section includes identifying characteristics, such as colour patterns and variations, fin arrangement and overall shape. ‘Habitat’ includes geographic range and depth, as well as brief information on substrate. The ‘Biology’ section, when present, may refer to migration patterns, spawning behaviour and/or diet. One section found in other guides, such as Pacific Coast Fishes by Eschmeyer et al. (1983), is the reference to similar species. This is often helpful in identifying a few candidate species for which traits can be compared. The species information provided is helpful and concise and should aid in most identifications.

The colour illustrations set this volume apart from existing field guides – with detailed, colourful and cleanly illustrated images, the field guide is a pleasure to browse through. Val Kells has become known as an exceptional illustrator for field guides to coastal fishes. As with A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Maine to Texas (Kells & Carpenter 2011) and Field Guide to Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay (Murdy et al. 2013), the illustrations in A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Alaska to California are wonderfully rendered, capturing the wealth of diversity in the near-coastal waters of the Pacific Coast of the United States. Despite the high quality illustrations, the similarities among similar species may still confound some observers, because key identifying characteristics are not specifically highlighted. However, the illustrations are very detailed and allow for better presentation of colour and form than do photographs or black and white drawings.

Having used Field Guide to Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay extensively, the more comprehensive information provided for each species in that volume is beneficial. However, the number of species included in A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Alaska to California is more than triple the number in Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay and in including such a breadth of species, sacrifices on detail had to be made to prevent the volume from becoming cumbersome. However, a current compendium of detailed species information for the Pacific Coast region is needed. The gold standard for this purpose remains Pacific Fishes of Canada (Hart 1973), last printed in 1988, with more recent but geographically limited offerings, such as Fishes of the Salish Sea: A Compilation and Distributional Analysis (Pietsch & Orr 2015), available regionally. But A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Alaska to California will be most useful as the field guide that it is, rather than a comprehensive scientific reference. In field-testing the volume recently, I found the illustrations to be complete and the descriptions informative for the common species we collected; for the few species with which I was less familiar, the descriptions proved adequate for confirming their identities.

This illustrated field guide will serve as a nice reference for those working around marine waters in this region. The number of species included is significant and should offer insight for most species encountered in the field. The presentation is straightforward and concise, and the richly rendered illustrations will delight any fish enthusiast.