Explores the fish fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. Keys and descriptions are provided for the families and for the species.

For more than a decade, Rezneat Darnell worked on this major synthesis of what is known about the Gulf of Mexico. His goal: to bring a deeper understanding of “the American Sea” to students, scientists, managers, and educated citizens of the public at large. The American Sea builds on Darnell’s own research, the research of his graduate students, government agency research reports, data synthesis reports, and literature summaries to present a holistic view of the Gulf of Mexico. Although he is recognized as a pioneer in the study of continental shelf ecology, Darnell largely resisted specialization, remaining throughout his career “the writer and bringer together of things.” Here, he has written a book that embraces history, geology, geography, meteorology, chemistry, biology, ecology, and human relations in one comprehensive reference. Although it is thorough and meticulous in coverage, what comes through in these pages is the enormity, complexity, and mystery of the world that lies just beyond the Texas vacation beach, the Louisiana wetland, or the Mexico fishing village. In addition to photographs of deep water and other organisms that are included in the book, a number of illustrations have been added to provide excellent visual material, including historical and ocean floor maps and many works of original art depicting marine species, sea turtles, fish, and crustaceans.

Environmental Studies of a Marine Ecosystem reports the temporal and spatial variation of both the living and nonliving resources of the south Texas outer continental shelf. As the last major study to have been conducted before the Ixtoc oil spill in 1979, it is of great importance as a record of the baseline conditions and ecosystem characteristics for both biologists and chemists studying the effects of the Campeche disaster on the marine environment. The book is the culmination of three years of field studies conducted for the Bureau of Land Management and contains information on the climatology, hydrology, and sedimentology of the region as well as data on the pelagic and benthic biota, environmental hydrocarbons and trace metals, and the microbiology of the area. In addition to the ecosystem description, the data are integrated to expose ecological relationships that exist and to identify those specific variables which are most important for the assessment and management of environmentally damaging impacts to the area.