Amazon.com Review
The sirenians, as scientists call them, are familiar denizens of the world's subtropical waters, well known to visitors to the Red Sea, the Florida keys, and Australia. In ancient times, around the world, these creatures, the manatees and dugongs, were thought to bear a magical kinship to humans, giving rise to stories of mermaids and sirens. Surprisingly, writes marine biologist Jeff Ripple, little was known about the sirenians until the late 1940s, when Florida-based scientists began to study them closely. His book, well illustrated with large-format photographs by Doug Perrine, interprets these scientists' findings for a general audience. Ripple offers accounts of the behavior and life ways of the Trichechidae, the family that embraces the West Indian, Amazonian, and West African manatees, and of the Dugongidae, which includes the dugong and the now-extinct Steller's sea cow. He also describes conservation efforts that have been undertaken in recent years, with mixed results as populations of wild animals continue to decline around the world. To protect the remaining sirenians, Ripple writes, will require controversial measures, including restrictions on the development of waterfront land and on boating in manatee and dugong habitat. The time for such measures, he adds, is growing ever shorter. --Gregory McNamee