Under The Microscope

DEEP BLUE: A SOUTH PACIFIC ODYSSEY by Wade Doak; HarperCollins, 1996; 182 pages, $59.95

The big yellow sticker announces "as seen on TV" and I'm sorry I missed what was obviously another beautifully presented TVNZ Natural History production. However, the book looks like it charts deeper waters than can be sailed in the limited time and view presented by TV.

It's a very personal voyage, told through the eyes, journals and conversations of the crew of the Evohe as they circle the South Pacific, from the often forbidding waters of the far south to the warmer, but potentially as dangerous, shoals of the Great Barrier Reef. The multi-person dialogue probably works better on TV, but in between lie large chunks of marine biology, environmentalism, natural and social history, all interspersed with the sort of glorious photography one would expect from a coffee-table book.

Vicki Hyde, NZSM