Visitors to the North Sea are astonished at the profusion of marine life that exists in this relatively small, box-shaped sea that is bounded by Britain to the west and the shores of northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the far south-west of Sweden in the east.This book, the first of its kind, includes more than 300 full-colour photographs and black-and-white line drawings. The introduction describes the formation of the North Sea, the habitats and types of animal found there, and the urgent conservation issues of this ecologically diverse area. The core of the book is the field guide section. This contains fascinating species accounts accompanied by identification photographs of nearly 300 species of sea creature, including fishes, molluscs, crustaceans, starfish, sponges and corals.