摘要：As species and habitats around the world decline, the information about them expands, and is squirrelled away in an infinity of websites and obscure reports, even when collected in the interest of conservation. Yet such information, while useful, is not knowledge, which requires synthesis and understanding. Only from such knowledge, can we find better ways to understand and consequently sustain the diversity of habitats and species that make up the natural world on a broad scale. Disseminating knowledge is why books like Whitfield’s are both rare and important. Whitfield has devoted much of his life to studying the biology of fishes of south African estuaries. Over 50 years he has created a rich legacy of scientific papers on the fishes, enough to satisfy most scientists. Instead, he has written a book which pulls together this diverse information in a readable fashion, the glue being his personal observations from long experience of being out on the estuaries of southern Africa sampling fish. This book allows others to tap into Whitfield’s vast knowledge of estuaries and their fishes and I regard it as a model for other senior scientists to follow.
