Marine Fishes of Arctic Canada is an accessible and up-to-date study on the diverse marine fish population existing in Canadian waters.

This is the first report of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) to summarize status and trends in biotic elements in the arctic marine environment. The effort has identified knowledge gaps in circumpolar biodiversity monitoring. CBMP is the cornerstone program of Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF).

This photographic and descriptive guide to the fish species that inhabit the North Atlantic and Mediterranean is unique in its emphasis on the appearance of marine fish in their natural habitats. It expands and recasts the Lythgoes' highly regarded first edition published two decades ago. In particular, all of the more than 200 color photographs are new, and most are accompanied by line drawings that emphasize distinctive traits. The fish are arranged by class, family, and species, and succinct descriptions give detailed information about anatomy, distribution, food, and breeding habits. Most of the photographs were taken underwater, providing valuable information on how the fish swims in nature, its true colors and pattern, and whether or not it is camouflaged against its natural background. The geographical area covered in the book includes the Atlantic coastal waters of the United States and Canada north of Chesapeake Bay; the Mediterranean; and from Gibraltar north to the Arctic, including all the coasts of Europe. John Lythgoe, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, is an expert on the appearance and color of fish underwater. The section of the book on the gobies, a group of fish that are as difficult to study as they are interesting, has been contributed by Peter J. Miller. Gillian Lythgoe is a diver, photographer, and the future and managing director of Planet Earth Pictures, whose collection covers a wide range of natural history and environmental subjects.

Until recently, the prevailing view of marine life at high latitudes has been that organisms enter a general resting state during the dark Polar Night and that the system only awakens with the return of the sun. Recent research, however, with coordinated, multidisciplinary field campaigns based on the high Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard, have provided a radical new perspective. Instead of a system in dormancy, a new perspective of a system in full operation and with high levels of activity across all major phyla is emerging. Examples of such activities and processes include: Active marine organisms at sea surface, water column and the sea-floor. At surface we find active foraging in seabirds and fish, in the water column we find a high biodiversity and activity of zooplankton and larvae such as active light induced synchronized diurnal vertical migration, and at seafloor there is a high biodiversity in benthic animals and macroalgae. The Polar Night is a period for reproduction in many benthic and pelagic taxa, mass occurrence of ghost shrimps (Caprellides), high abundance of Ctenophores, physiological evidence of micro- and macroalgal cells that are ready to utilize the first rays of light when they appear, deep water fishes found at water surface in the Polar night, and continuous growth of bivalves throughout the winter. These findings not only begin to shape a new paradigm for marine winter ecology in the high Arctic, but also provide conclusive evidence for a top-down controlled system in which primary production levels are close to zero. In an era of environmental change that is accelerated at high latitudes, we believe that this new insight is likely to strongly impact how the scientific community views the high latitude marine ecosystem. Despite the overwhelming darkness, the main environmental variable affecting marine organisms in the Polar Night is in fact light. The light regime during the Polar Night is unique with respect to light intensity, spectral composition of light and photoperiod.

Co-published by: National Research Council of Canada.

Atlantic Fishes of Canada is intended as a replacement volume for Fishes of the Atlantic Coast of Canada, which was published in 1966 as Bulletin 155 of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. The major portion of the present book is concerned with the biology, distribution, and/or economics of the fishes occurring off our Atlantic coast. Most accounts are well documented, necessitating an extensive reference list, which we hope will prove useful in itself. A checklist and keys are also presented for students or anyone concerned with the kinds and identification of fishes making up the fauna of the region. Many changes have occurred since 1966, not only in the state of our knowledge of the fauna and its biology but also in the management of the resource. Changes in the management are well documented in the section 'Atlantic Coast Fisheries and Fisheries Research in the Last 25 Years.'

The various chapters of this book have been written by researchers who are still working in the Canadian Inland Seas region. The chapters synthesize what is known about these seas, yet much still is to be learnt. It is hoped that this collection of information will serve as a springboard for future, much needed, studies in this fascinating, diverse region, and will stimulate comparative analyses with other subarctic and arctic basins of the world. The Canadian Inland Seas are the only remnants, albeit cold, of the ancient cratonic marine basins which occupied central North America throughout the Paleozoic and part of the Mesozoic. Precambrian rocks and gently dipping Paleozoic sedimentary rocks underlie the seas. The area is also close to the centers of Pleistocene glaciations. The coastal areas represent an emerged landscape of the post-glacial Tyrrell sea, as the region has been isostatically uplifted to about 350 meters since glacial times. A total of 56 fish species inhabit Hudson Bay and James Bay. Seals, whales and one of the largest and southernmost populations of polar bears inhabit the seas as well. The coastal areas are important habitats for migratory bird populations, some of which migrate from as far away as Southern Argentina.The ostic environment has preserved these regions relatively unchanged by man, with only a major harbour at Churchill, Manitoba, which is active for part of the year, and a second large, rail-terminal settlement in the south at Moosonee, Ontario. A few, small, native Indian and Inuit villages dot the coasts. The seas are being affected indirectly by the damming of rivers for the generation of hydroelectric power, and by drainage diversions towards the man-made reservoirs. A major project is being completed in Quebec east of James Bay, but other rivers in Ontario and Manitoba have been dammed as well. Undoubtedly freshwater is one of the more important resources of the area, however its exploitation needs careful thought because of the possible long-range effects on the environment, particularly the coastal marshes, which sustain much of the eastern American intercontinental migratory avifauna. Other resources occur in the regions, primarily minerals and perhaps petroleum. For the most part however, such resources remain to be discovered.

Examines consequences of outer continental shelf petroleum development in light of current knowledge. Cover title: Environmental assessment of the Alaskan continental shelf.