We might be a bit late introducing this book to you. But we just found it and feel we have to share the discovery. Marah Hardt's Sex in the Sea is much more than an informative book about marine life reproduction. It will be sure to make you blush and at times can sound like serious locker room talk.
And those who enjoy diving or snorkelling will love this actually very scientific book for its fascinating insights into the reproductive and social life of all those ocean creatures we know so little about.
Lobsters, for example, like to mate just after the female sheds her shell when she is most vulnerable. Before the female lobster "strips down" for her companion, she will visit his home and make sure she's selected a male who will be able to protect her. For lobsters, making love involves a week of foreplay and begins with the female peeing in the face of the male. For days, the female will tease the male, tickle and lick him and then again flee and play hard to get.
Hardt writes: “At the appointed time, the male circles behind her, assuming a doggy-style mount. But then, in what may be the most tender act of lovemaking in the invertebrate kingdom, he lifts her gently off the seafloor and cradles her in his small walking legs. He braces himself, with big front claws and tail pressing into the sand, and gently turns her onto her back, pulling her up toward him.”
Hardt's book is kinky at times, but a fascinating read with important suggestions for conservation and sustainable fisheries management.
Sex in the Sea; Our Intimate Connection with Sex-Changing Fish, Romantic Lobsters, Kinky Squid, and Other Salty Erotica of the Deep. Marah J. Hardt. St. Martin’s Press. 277 pages. $26.99.