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This is a must for every turtle worker’s bookshelf and more detailed instructions of how to obtain a copy were announced recently in this publication (Donnelly 2000: MTN 87:21). It is produced in softback with the acknowledged support of the World Wide Fund for Nature, Convention on Migratory Species, US National Marine Fisheries Service, Florida Co-operative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and the Center for Marine Conservation.

It is an impressive volume which contains 42 peer-reviewed chapters authored by more than 100 individuals with a wealth of experience in the relevant fields. Information is provided on a host of issues in seven sections: Overview; Taxonomy and Species Identification; Population and Habitat Assessment; Data Collection and Methods; Reducing Threats; Husbandry, Veterinary Care, and Necropsy; and Legislation and Enforcement.

The manual achieves its goal in providing guidance for field researchers and conservationists and if widely distributed and used it will go a long way towards helping standardise methodologies, so allowing better comparison of data across temporal and spatial scales. If any criticism could be levelled at its content, it would be that because of the breadth of subject matter, it has been difficult for the authors to deal with their topics in as much depth as they no doubt would have liked. This was inevitable. The book has been designed so that, for almost any subject related to marine turtle biology and conservation, there is at least a starting point in a self contained chapter with its own reference section. In addition, great care has been made to make all authors easily contactable with address, e-mail, fax and phone number being present as part of the title for each chapter.

Translations of the manual to Spanish and French are in progress. These will be announced in this publication.

Reviewer: Brendan J. Godley (Co-Editor, Marine Turtle Newsletter)