The Fourth Edition of The Light and Smith Manual continues a sixty-five-year tradition of providing to both students and professionals an indispensable, comprehensive, and authoritative guide to Pacific coast marine invertebrates of coastal waters, rocky shores, sandy beaches, tidal mud flats, salt marshes, and floats and docks. This classic and unparalleled reference has been newly expanded to include all common and many rare species from Point Conception, California, to the Columbia River, one of the most studied areas in the world for marine invertebrates. In addition, although focused on the central and northern California and Oregon coasts, this encyclopedic source is useful for anyone working in North American coastal ecosystems, from Alaska to Mexico. More than one hundred scholars have provided new keys, illustrations, and annotated species lists for over 3,500 species of intertidal and many shallow water marine organisms ranging from protozoans to sea squirts. This expanded volume covers sponges, sea anemones, hydroids, jellyfish, flatworms, polychaetes, amphipods, crabs, insects, snails, clams, chitons, and scores of other important groups. The Fourth Edition also features introductory chapters on marine habitats and biogeography, interstitial marine life, and intertidal parasites, as well as expanded treatments of common planktonic organisms likely to be encountered in near-to-shore shallow waters.

The dry land is one world and the wet sea is another, but the line separating them is ever-changing. Known as the intertidal zone, the area between the land and the sea is defined by the extremes of the tides. Sam Hinton provides an introduction to this fascinating zone and its contiguous waters and to some of the many creatures who make the southern California seacoast their home. This highly readable book has been for many years the handiest resource available for anyone wanting to explore that region's delights and mysteries. The book is filled with interesting anecdotes and drawings and has a thorough discussion of the natural forces¯the tides, winds, storms, currents, surf, and ocean chemistry¯that affect near-shore animals. Also included is a section relating the ocean forces to the intertidal habitat, along with a map of southern California locations where one might observe the organisms described in the book.

The dry land is one world and the wet sea is another, but the line separating them is ever-changing. Known as the intertidal zone, the area between the land and the sea is defined by the extremes of the tides. Sam Hinton provides an introduction to this fascinating zone and its contiguous waters and to some of the many creatures who make the southern California seacoast their home. This highly readable book has been for many years the handiest resource available for anyone wanting to explore that region's delights and mysteries. The book is filled with interesting anecdotes and drawings and has a thorough discussion of the natural forces ̄the tides, winds, storms, currents, surf, and ocean chemistry ̄that affect near-shore animals. Also included is a section relating the ocean forces to the intertidal habitat, along with a map of southern California locations where one might observe the organisms described in the book.