Marine Mammals of North America

A large-format visual reference to the whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, walrus, manatee, sea otter and polar bear of North American waters, built from primary sources and cross-checked.

Sixty-four species across ten parts: the right whales, bowhead and gray whale; the rorquals, from the blue whale to the Rice's whale, named as a species only in 2021; the sperm and beaked whales; the beluga, narwhal and killer whale; sixteen dolphins and porpoises, including the vaquita, of which as few as ten remain; the sea lions, fur seals and walrus; nine true seals; and the manatee, sea otter and polar bear. Ninety-eight entries in total, with 104 photographs and large plates.

Every size figure in the data panels was taken from NOAA Fisheries or the state wildlife agency responsible for the species, converted from the source's own units, and checked against an independent measured dataset. Where the sources disagree -- including NOAA's own pages -- the book says so. NOAA's headline sizes are often world maxima, so the blue whale panel gives both the North American and the Antarctic figures.

Alongside the species accounts: how marine mammals keep warm, hold their breath for hours, filter the sea through baleen and see with sound; how to tell seals from sea lions and one dolphin from another in the second you get; the three kinds of killer whale; the deepest-diving beaked whales; and the law that protects them all, with the viewing distances, stranding hotlines and rules for watching them without harm.

8.25 x 11 inches. Full colour throughout. Complete contents and full index.