Reef Creature Identification

The updated 2025/2026 printing of the 3rd edition is the most comprehensive field guide available for reef creature identification for scuba divers, snorkelers and marine life enthusiasts. Be able to identify lobsters, crabs, jellies, nudibranchs, sponges, worms, snails, slugs, squid, octopuses, sea stars, urchins, sea cucumbers and tunicates. This is the guide preferred by Dive Instructors, Dive Masters, Dive Resorts and Liveaboard operations.
Identify species in Florida, the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Cuba, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cancun, Cozumel, Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Martin, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba and more!
The cover is made with a flexible card stock and the pages are stitched into the binding like a hardcover, but with a gap, making the book able to lie flat. More than 900 species are presented in 1200 full color photographs taken in the species natural habitat. The easy-to-use, quick reference format makes it a snap to identify the invertebrates sighted on the reefs, sand flats, grass beds, surf zones and walls of the region.
If you want to be able to identify all of the critters on your dive, this is the book you need! Ebook available directly from the publisher - New World Publications.

Paul's underwater photographs have appeared in numerous magazines including Skin Diver, Ocean Realm, Sport Diver, Rodale's Scuba Diving, National Geographic, Audubon, Natural History, National Wildlife, and Ranger Rick. An ABC sports special featured Paul introducing famed Jaws author Peter Benchley to the marine life of Galapagos. Paul has authored two large-format underwater pictorial books and co-authored, with Ned DeLoach, ten marine life field guides including the popular Reef Set trilogy, Reef Fish Identification, Reef Creature Identification and Reef Coral Identification - Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas.?? Paul's work established visual identification criteria for many marine animals. Long hours of observation, documentation, cataloguing and corresponding with dozens of taxonomic scientists were essential steps in the long process. In many instances picture/voucher specimen collection was required to make positive identifications. As a result, many of his pictures were the first ever published of living species in their natural habitat. The specimens from this work now reside in the Smithsonian's National History collection. These efforts made it possible for underwater naturalists to make valid non-impact biodiversity assessments of reef ecosystems.?