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Biology of Fishes

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DOI: 10.1080/17451000902889821

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 Marine Biology Research

ISSN: 1745-1000 (Print) 1745-1019 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/smar20

Biology of Fishes

Peter Rask Møller

To cite this article: Peter Rask Møller (2009) Biology of Fishes, Marine Biology Research, 5:4,
414-414, DOI: 10.1080/17451000902889821

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17451000902889821

Published online: 16 Jun 2009.

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 Marine Biology Research, 2009; 5: 414
BOOK REVIEW
Biology of Fishes, 3rd edition, by Quentin Bone
& Richard H. More
Taylor & Francis Group, New York & Oxford,
2008, 478 pp., ISBN: 9780415375627, ISBN-10:
0415375622, £39.99 (pb)
This book of 14 chapters covers traditional
fish biology including diversity, habitats, swimming,
buoyancy, gas exchange and circulatory system,
osmoregulation and ion balance, food and feed-
ing, reproduction and life histories, endocrine
systems, sensory system, nervous system, immune
system, behaviour, fisheries and aquaculture. The
chapter on the immune system is new to the 3rd
edition, compared to the 2nd edition by Bone,
Downloaded by [216.68.91.2] at 12:49 30 January 2016
Marshall & Blaxter (1995). Both subject and sys-
tematic indexes are included, which makes it easy to
navigate the comprehensive text. Illustrations are
plentiful, mainly as drawings with a few photo-
graphs. Some readers may, however, find the fish
drawings somewhat primitive and artistic rather than
informative.
The book has a clear physiological approach
and focuses on how fishes deal with the challenges
of living in aquatic habitats. The systematic part
provides a rough overview of the diversity of fishes,
but this topic is clearly not the authors’ strongpoint.
Spelling mistakes in scientific names are not un-
common, and incorrect names are sometimes used
for higher categories. On page 236, for example, it is
mentioned that the ophidioids are viviparous
this
should have been the bythitoids. The number of fish
species is claimed to be over 25,000 with around 100
new species described annually. There is no reason
for not being accurate on this, however, since the
correct numbers are about 30,000 and 400, respec-
ISSN 1745-1000 print/ISSN 1745-1019 online
DOI: 10.1080/17451000902889821
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tively, as can easily be found from Eschmeyer’s
Catalog of Fishes: http://research.calacademy.org/
research/ichthyology/. Such mistakes could also
have been avoided by consulting Nelson (2006),
cited on page 60.
Readers should not expect this book to be
useful for management and conservation issues.
The chapters on fisheries and aquaculture provide
an overview, but no more than that. More references
to the threatened status of some of the species would
have made the book timelier. The story on page 28
about how a sturgeon was caught off the coast of the
UK by a research vessel and then presented to
the Queen for consumption is no longer amusing, as
the species is now critically endangered (CITES)
and may well become extinct before long.
As already mentioned, this book is primarily a
text on fish physiology and as such it is ‘good value’.
It provides a fine and updated overview and will be a
very useful universal handbook for both students
and experienced biologists.
References
Bone Q, Marshall NB, Blaxter JHS. 1995. Biology of Fishes. 2nd
ed. London: Chapman & Hall. 332 pages.
Nelson JS. Fishes of the World. 4th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. 624 pages.
Peter Rask Møller
Curator of Fishes, Associate Professor
Zoological Museum,
Natural History Museum of Denmark,
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
E-mail: pdrmoller@snm.ku.dk
# 2009 Peter Rask Møller