Fiordland Underwater, New Zealand's Hidden Wilderness

Description

The authors must have faced a dilemma in publishing this book on New Zealand's largest national park. For the glorious presentation will doubtless encourage interest in a fragile area already threatened by a burgeoning tourist industry and commercial and recreational fishing. However their images have a greater purpose beyond enchanting coffee-table browsers and that is to encourage an environmental awareness of Fiordland below the waterline. Paulin, a marine biologist at Te Papa, and Ryan, an environmental consultant, have delved into the murky depths and resurfaced with a comprehensive, beautiful presentation and analysis that will stimulate the diehard ecologist or the couch potato. Fiordland's watery wonderland is probably best known for its black coral (actually white), but there exists a myriad of marine species, representative both of New Zealand's coast and those unique to this particular dark, silent world. The text is relaxed and informative and never nagging or presumptuous. Paulin was inspired by his great-grandfather, Robert Paulin, whose book on Fiordland, The Wild West Coast Of New Zealand- A Summer Cruise On The Rosa, was published in 1889. A hundred years on, the great-grandson and his colleague have produced their own piece of inspiration. Evening Post, 4 September, 1998

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