Britain's Freshwater Fishes
Princeton University Press
WILDGuides | 2013
144
pp. | 15 x 21 cm | 569 colour photos. 161 colour distribution maps
Paperback | £17.95
/ $27.95 | ISBN:
9780691156781
There have been quite a number of
guides to British freshwater fish over the years, but none seems to
have endured and there is no clear 'standard field guide'. This seems
odd for a group that is the basis of one of the country's most
popular hobbies. The only guide on my shelves is Wheeler's 1978 Key
to the Fishes of Northern Europe,
acquired shortly after it was
published. This is an extremely well-researched and
comprehensive guide, but I suspect that the lack of colour
illustrations prevented it becoming very popular. It is probably a
reflection on the lack of better guides in the intervening 35 years
that good copies of the dependable Wheeler typically fetch £100 or
more!
Everard's new guide covers the UK's
freshwater fish: all 41 of our native species, plus 13 exotics
(including anglers' favourites Common Carp Cyprinus carpio and
Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss). It follows the established
WILDGuides format, combining high-quality photographs and informative
figures with a concise, authoritative text that focusses on field
identification – all arranged across one or two pages to obviate
the need for page-flipping. The text includes quite a lot of
ecological information, which is of interest in itself, as well as
supporting identification. Where appropriate, a box summarises the
diagnostic features which can be relied upon to clinch separation
from similar species. The author's approach is largely non-technical,
relying on what birders call 'jizz', rather than detailed taxonomic
detail (although, for example, the comparative table of cyprinid
identification features on pp. 52-53 provides handy comparison). Maps
would have been useful and one would have thought that our anglers
and angling bodies would amassed ample distributional data.
Apparently not: “distribution maps have generally not been included
in the species accounts due to the incomplete knowledge of the range
of most species, and the extent of introductions" (p. 51).
As with other
WILDGuides, conservation is a major theme running throughout the
book. Within the species accounts, a table indicates conservation
status: IUCN Red List status, UK Biodiversity Action Plan listing and
whether the species is subject to key European and UK environmental
legislation. Our most threatened native fish
are the Gwyniad Coregonus
(laveratus?) pennantii
(the Welsh population
of the European
Whitefish C. lavaretus),
Common Sturgeon Acipenser
sturio and
European Eel Anguilla
anguilla, all of which are
Critically Endangered.
I found particularly interesting the
comparative photographs of Rudd and Roach (p. 56), the page
suggesting sites for watching salmon migration (p. 50) and the map of
species richness of European fish (p. 12 – although it is puzzling
to see North Wales shown with >55 species [data taken directly
from the European
Red List of European freshwater fishes]).
Is this the fish book to buy?
Definitely! Ideal for the pocket, glove-compartment or tackle-box,
this guide will give naturalists a much better chance of identifying
the fish they see. I presume that all but novice anglers can identify
their catch, but they should welcome the comprehensive national
coverage, and detailed information on ecology and conservation.
This handy guide
is a very welcome addition to the literature, especially since few of
the dozen or so previously published fish guides are still in print.
All in all, a great new guide for naturalists and anglers alike.
Freyhof,
J. & Brooks, E. (2011) European
Red List of European freshwater fishes.
Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg. 60 pp.
Wheeler,
A.
(1978)
Key to the fishes
of northern
Europe. Federick
Warne: London. 380 pp.
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