Seamounts are diverse physical features of all oceans. Written by no less than 57 multidisciplinary authors from science, management and non-governmental organizations, this very informative book summarizes current science and management issues concerning these numerous geomorphological features and their biota. It is a timely and potentially influential effort, paving the way to more comprehensive new scientific initiatives and informing important public players such as managers and other stakeholders.rnDivided into five thematic parts, the book contains 21 individual chapters, most written or drafted during a workshop in the Azores in May 2005. Part I is introductory and comprises a very readable paper by Wessel on seamount characteristics, mainly emphasising the geological and geophysical aspects. This is followed by attempts to estimate seamount numbers and by a historical review of seamount science. These three papers set the scene, but a lot of the substance is repeated in many other papers later in the book. This partly explains why a book on what many authors recognise as rather unknown can still become 500 pages long. Definitions of seamounts appear to vary somewhat between chapters, but the total numerical estimate is around 100,000. However, these are the major features only, and a more conservative definition would increase this number tenfold or more. No distinction is made between isolated seamounts rising from abyssal depths, perhaps what the public normally understands by a seamount, and the hills associated with mid-ocean ridges, continental margins or major island archipelagos. This is recognised as a problem, perhaps unavoidable, but some chapters clearly suffer from a lack of differentiation between seamount types and locations.
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