Bob Halstead`s Coral Sea Fish Guide

The Bob Halstead`s Coral Sea Fish Guide is now available for $5.99 for both iPhone and iPad owners.The application is designed for use in English language. It weighs in at a hefty 243 MB, so make sure you have plenty of free space on your iOS device. It is highly advisable to have the latest app version installed so that you don`t miss out on the fresh new features and improvements. The current app version 1.1 has been released on 2014-03-05. The Apple Store includes a very useful feature that will check if your device and iOS version are both compatible with the app. Most iPhone and iPad are compatible. Here is the app`s compatibility information: Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
More Info: Find more info about Bob Halstead`s Coral Sea Fish Guide in Bob Halstead`s Official Website : http://www.benno.com.au/fishguide

I wrote this book review in 2002 and the App takes the original book and improves on it a must for the traveling diver and fish lover In terms of complex biodiversity and sheer abundance of species there are few underwater areas richer than the Coral Sea the aquatic universe defined on maps as lying within the land boundaries of northeastern Australia Papua New Guinea the Solomon Islands Vanuatu and New Caledonia Even after nearly two decades of diving in this region I come up from every dive with two distinct impressions a sense of sensory overload from the magnificence of the reef life at hand and new questions about what animals and phenomena I have seen often in the what the hell was that category Inevitably I head to a ship or resort s reference book library to try and find answers to what has been in front of one s face and exactly what has been observed none of which is necessarily intuitive Time and again the book I reach for first and usually last as once an intelligent thought provoking and satisfying answer is found why look elsewhere is CORAL SEA REEF GUIDE by Bob Halstead The book really should have been called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Fish and Invertebrates Reef Life and Adventures in the Coral Sea But Were Afraid to Ask and Once You Did Boy Did You Get More Than Your Money s Worth and Brilliantly Illustrated but modesty is still a virtue so CORAL SEA REEF GUIDE it is ask for it by name For anyone out there who has had their head in the muck and doesn t know what s going on Bob Halstead and his beautiful wife Dinah pioneered diving in Papua New Guinea in the mid 1970 s and especially liveaboard diving since 1980 and have continued to dive there ever since They put Milne Bay on the map as one of the world s premiere dive destinations and the Halsteads located the majority of the dive sites popular to this day A simple review of the dive magazine articles of the last 20 years are a roll call of the world class world famous sites they discovered Dinah s Beach Banana Bommie Observation Point Deacon s Reef Black and Silver Kathy s Corner or Valerie s Reef in the northern region of Kavieng for that matter the list goes on and on and on Every money making operation in Milne Bay owes them a tremendous debt even if sadly the petulant egos of late arriving competitors would have it otherwise Further any operator who would call Dinah s Beach by any other name including the geographical name of Lauadi instead of paying recognition to the stewardship of this very special site by Dinah Halstead s family is as wrong minded as one seeking to rename scientifically recognized taxonomy or to argue that black is white Shame on you With more than 10 000 hours underwater there is very little Bob Halstead has not seen especially since he has had the great advantage of having as his partner in life and partner in diving Dinah who is gifted with the keenest set of observer s eyes known worldwide and has an equally generous spirit of sharing each new discovery with anyone who has interest By the way for those who have their heads in the muck it was the Halsteads who introduced the technique to tourists as well as coined the now accepted but at the time radical term muck diving searching for bizarre and interesting sea life in shallow water areas close to shore while running their Telita cruises in the early years of PNG diving On those 10 000 plus dives Bob Halstead had not only as Dinah for company he has also had his camera Dinah has one too and she is every bit as terrific as a photographer as she is as a person and her contributions to the book are highlights The result no one in the world has more or better images of the sea life fish invertebrates and phenomena of the Coral Sea than Bob Halstead nor has anyone captured these things on film with such creativity variety and beautiful artistic vision No we re not related Usually sea life identification books can be somewhat one dimensional as most authors do not have the faintest clue of what is important and interesting to the reader In the case of CORAL SEA REEF GUIDE not only does Bob Halstead explain where to find a certain animal he gives a snapshot of their personality and leads the reader on a journey to other animals and environments Interspersed with the photographs and descriptions of 1 000 or so marine animals are great stand alone stories of adventures and phenomena that have been experienced over the years by the author all brilliantly photographed and written about with wit intelligence and insight A particular point of interest to macro life aficionados will be the section on the discovery by Dinah Halstead of a strange looking scorpionfish that has become the most sought after sighting and must see critter on every visit to Papua New Guinea the Rhinopias Other great accounts describe in water encounters with salt water crocodiles dugongs chambered nautilus a manta ray cleaning station coral spawning and my favorite an answer to the question of what happened to the dinosaurs There simply is no reason to read or buy any other guide book to the Coral Sea region Bob Halstead s book is not only a good book but for divers visiting this magnificent area it is the Bible the truest definition of the Good Book                     Indispensable for the diver and fish lover in all of us DouglasDiver

Bob Halstead is the original and most significant pioneer in exploring the reefs of Papua New Guinea I had the good fortune to share some of his early adventures and sent groups of divers to the boats he skippered for many years Bob was a magnificent host and his knowledge and insight into the colorful marine life enriched his cruises for thousands of divers His new book is not only filled with astonishing color and variety it contains many species divers will never have seen before I confess that he has showed me tiny exotic creatures in places I would never have even thought to look Underwater this man as your dive buddy is a treasure for any photographer This collection will immediately become the authoritative work on the marine life in this sector of the Pacific and a must own for anyone interested in diving there I am thrilled for him and his readers as the e book ITunes channel makes his work so easily accessible Carl Roessler                     Bob Halstead s Coral Sea Fish Guide divexprt