It isn’t known whether or not Theodor Seuss Geisel was thinking of the ichthyological diversity to be found in the Pacific Northwest’s Salish Sea when declaring “Say, what a lot of fish there are” in the opening of his now classic book “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” but it would be entirely understandable if he had been.
Including straight-forward, easily accessible information and identifying images of forty-six species of crabs, from the widely-known (and much coveted among seafood fanciers) Dungeness Crab, Cancer magister, to the little-known (at least to me) Pubescent Porcelain Crab, Pachycheles pubescens, as well as a concise introductory section explaining crab ecology and life history, this new field guide will easily prove itself essential to any well-stocked field bag for all Pacific Northwest coast explorations.
On the morning of 18 May, 1980, I was camping with my Boy Scout troop in Ft. Stevens State Park. We were just finishing up breakfast when the news reached us from one of the rangers that Mt. St. Helens had erupted. None of us would learn the full extent of the damage – including the destruction of Spirit Lake, a heartbreakingly beautiful location at which we had camped the year before – wrought by explosion until days later. Fifty-seven people died from the blast, as well as countless animals and plants. So much of the surrounding landscape was either incinerated or buried by ash that it resembled the surface of the Moon more than any Earthly environment. Like so many of my Pacific Northwest neighbors, I remember wondering if I would live to see the area even begin to return to its former lush, green state.
There are few nights of my life that I can recall when I have been more scared than I was the night I took up Kelly Brenner’s Nature Obscura. Reports of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading throughout the world had suddenly reached fever pitch with case numbers of COVID-19 being reported as skyrocketing where only a […]