Bloomsbury Wildlife

Coastal Seas

Authors:	Frances Dipper and Paul Naylor
Published:	2025
Format:	Hardback, 368 pages
Size:	242 × 166 × 33 mm

£40⁰⁰

Tax included

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Marine habitats and species around Britain

Explores the varied underwater habitats of British coastal seas, from kelp forests to seagrass meadows, with 300 colour photographs and insights from marine biologists.

A lavish exploration of habitats, communities and species hidden just beyond the shorelines of the British Isles.

The shoreline around these islands provides tantalising, twice-daily glimpses of the wonders in our seas, but reveals very little of the lives of the dazzlingly colourful fish, exotic-looking corals and thousands more creatures that are just out of sight. Marine biologists and lifelong divers Frances Dipper and Paul Naylor draw on their personal stories to build a vivid picture of the ocean on our doorstep – what lives there, why it's important and what's happening to it.

Coastal Seas provides a window into the immensely varied and picturesque habitats beneath the waves, from kelp forests and reefs to seagrass meadows and the open water, as well as the fascinating behaviour and intricate relationships of the fish, cephalopods, invertebrates and other residents within them. The book explores the unique opportunities and challenges that come with living underwater (How do you stay afloat without being swept away? How do you find food and a mate if rooted to the spot?) and reflects on the state of our seas, and what we must do to conserve them.

Including around 300 colour photographs, this latest addition to the British Wildlife Collection is a vibrant celebration of the richness and importance of our marine life.

Praise for Coastal Seas

'Easily the best book on the wonders to be found in Britain's coastal seas.'
– Prof Callum Roberts

About the Author

Frances Dipper is an independent marine biologist, author and lecturer and has been diving and studying marine wildlife for over 40 years. She writes both children and adult books on marine life and ocean environments, contributes a regular marine report to British Wildlife magazine and wrote the award-winning DK Guide to the Oceans. Her most ambitious (and largest) recent book is The Marine World: A Natural History of Marine Life. Although no longer scuba-diving, she still finds plenty to fascinate her along Britain's wonderful shoreline.

Britain's undersea world and its amazing inhabitants have fascinated Paul since his first adventures snorkelling on the Norfolk coast as a teenager. This led him to a career in marine biology and environmental protection, with a lifelong love for diving, underwater photography and espousing the joy of meeting and studying marine animals. He is also the author of Great British Marine Animals.