These books are set in real SEAS, and the CREATURES and LOCATIONS that the young mers see are real too.
This page presents some of the SPECIES, and some of the PLACES, which inspired this story.
There are no photos of MERPEOPLE in this section. Please send any if you have them.
Arrow crab
The cave was empty, save for one enormous violet anemone in the middle of the ceiling; arrow crabs scuttled around it on red-gold stick legs, their spiked noses lifted curiously.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Barracuda
Once, a barracuda drifted into sight, glinting like a knife; it stared at them with cold eyes, then flicked its tail and was gone.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 1
Caves
Twenty fathoms down, the slope tumbled over a shallow cliff with a black crack at its base. Riakka ducked into the crack and sent a pulse of sonar in; a few glassy-eyed sentry-fish scattered past her in a flash of silver and red.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 9
Cleaner Fish
She and Helmi hooked their fingers under a ledge and swung head down as first one cleaner wrasse hurried over, then a second. They were tiny things, no bigger than a finger, with bright green flanks, yellow stripes and a black eye-spot in the middle of their backs. They looked too vulnerable to survive; but they were the safest things in the ocean. Not even a shark would attack a cleaner-fish.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Comb-back
As they descended, a shape moved sluggishly: a fish as heavy as they were, thick-bodied and sullen-lipped, with a crest of spines along its back. It shook itself and flicked away as they approached: a giant comb-back, good to eat, but too hard to catch at this depth.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Corals
As they went deeper, red and yellow fans of coral appeared, their echoes humming like a harp string.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Cuttlefish
A cuttlefish came dawdling across the slope, saw them and shot away backwards in a spurt of sand. (Cuttlefish can change color, as these two photos of the same animal, taken one minute apart, show vividly.)
Atlantis Lost, chapter 7
Damsel Swarm
Below on the reef, a handred damselfish had come out to feed, darting this way and that, mouths opening and closing, every one a reflection of all the others.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Dolphins
The pod was gathering again, whistling and chattering: their hunt song had been magnificent, and they knew it.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 3
Eels
A grove of eels shrank back into their holes, making a sound like a gusting wind.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Jewel Fish
Three myriad miles they stretched, and corals bloomed on every inch, and the ruby-fish swarmed over them like a blizzard of golden sparks.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 6
Octopus
The scent of blood was thickening; as Pel looked back the way they had come, he saw a white spotted octopus come flowing over the stones, drawn by the scent of food.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 7
Seahorse
A movement by her arm made her start. She looked around sharply. It was a peace-fish, what humans call a sea-horse, clinging with his tail to a weed-grown bollard and swaying like a scrap of weed himself.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 7
Shrimp and Anemone
Mielikki had once seen a manta roll completely upside down in pleasure as a dozen red-striped shrimps scurried over its pure white belly picking off ticks; on that enormous surface they looked like ants running across a beach.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Sting ray
A gray-backed stingray, its wings as big as a boat, pushed upwards in a cloud of sand and finned away, its frilled tail swinging from side to side.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 9
Wide-eyed flounder
Once there was a flurry beneath her as a wide-eyed flounder rocketed out of the sand; then she disappeared from sight.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 11