Florida's Living Beaches: A Guide for the Curious Beachcomber

If you bring it home from the beach and look it up, it’s in the book. I have purchased this a few times as gifts.

Love this book! Great pictures and an incredible amount of information!

I loved taking this book along on our trip to 30A. I found lots of things from the book, including the man-o-war sail, a purple sea snail, and barnacles.The authors made the beach environment come alive with their focus on the beach features (I didn't know the white sand at Florida's beaches came from Appalachian quartz, e.g.) -- and it's done in such an engaging, warm way. Clearly written by two passionate nature/beach lovers! Fully recommend.

Used it for identification of local flora & fauna. Good description of where species are typically located.

Family loves to look at it together while planning trip to Florida

As a native coastal Floridian, I grew up in awe of the sea and all of its wonder. I was hooked after my first shelling expedition at the tender age of two. Since then, my curiosity to learn about all things in, on, and near the water has been insatiable. I'm now 52 and just discovered this book and I've been so impressed with it that I sent it to my brother (also an amatuer enthusiast). This book is full of gasp-inspiring facts that I sincerely never knew. The best part is that this brilliant couple has put everything into easily readable and understandable bits, even when explaining complex things like ecosystems. They break down everything into categories, I found this helpful and convenient for referencing purposes. It helps the reader to understand where to find things, what to look for and when to look for it. The descriptions of anatomies of beaches to mollusks and everything in between is not only fascinating, but understandable. I feel like it has rekindled my passion for the sea in a way that speaks to my inner child, but as an adult living in a complicated world. And if you're the beach enthusiast that is also into beach/beach wildlife conservation, even on a small scale, then please get a copy. Entertaining (a few bits of dry humor here and there), informative and down right essential as a beachgoer in Florida. I highly, highly recommend this book!

I thought I would need to get several books to answer many of my questions about the beaches in Florida - like books on shells, birds, mammals, tides, surf, sand, plants, weather, moon cycles, etc. etc. Fortunately I found this book instead. It has EVERYTHING a beach explorer may find!! And it is organized in a way that makes it extremely easy and intuitive to identify your beach find treasure. It even identifies some manmade items that are likely to wash up on shore. Every thing I have found on the beach has been identified using this book.

I'll just be one more chiming in that this book is worth getting if you plan to spend any time on the coast of Florida and want to learn what you'll be seeing when you do. Since moving back to the Atlantic side of south Florida I've been spending a lot of time at the beach. I've developed a fondness for shell collecting and that's what led me to eventually find this book. I needed a good shell identification guide. I almost bought another book, but an Amazon reviewer recommend this book over the other I was about to buy, so out of curiosity I checked out the review page which was nothing but 5 star review after 5 star review. What impressed me was seeing that it covers the entire gambit of everything and anything a person may find at the beach, from shells to corals, sponges, jellyfish, land and water animals, plant/tree life, seabeans and seeds and even drift item that commonly wash ashore. And more! The opening chapter is devoted to explaining the anatomy of a beach and all its components, which is very informative. I bought it for the shell identification guide primarily but it's been great for everything else. As others have mentioned it's full of photographs on every page, a corresponding map telling you where in Florida you'll tend to find each particular item and during what season, and is a well organized, easy and fun to read high quality book. It's a must-own resource if you visit Florida beaches and like to learn about what you're surrounded by. And as far as I can tell, every shell I've found so far was in the book. And it was nice to learn exactly *why* one of my fave beaches is always a milky seagreen color, versus others that tend to be a rich blue green. :D It's all in here.

Full of excellent informations about all U have to know about a beach.... including plants, fishes, animals, trees, anatomy of the sans dunes, etc.!