vivanatura.org

Viva Natura's upcoming Field Guide to the Marine Life of the Mexican Tropical Pacific is scheduled for release in mid-2026, and the only notification channel the project describes is an email sign-up on its own site. You register your email address through the notification form tied to the upcoming book, and the author, Petr Myska, states you will receive a short message when the book becomes available. According to the site, there are no newsletters and no marketing emails — just a publication notice.

What the book will cover

The guide is described as a bilingual field guide to more than 200 marine species of Mexico's Tropical Pacific, illustrated with over 400 full-color photographs taken by the author in the wild. The species groups named on the site include:

• Reef fish
• Corals
• Sharks and rays
• Crustaceans
• Nudibranchs
• Other marine animals

The stated audience is divers, students, and ocean explorers who need a practical identification guide for the region.

How to sign up for the release notice

1. Go to vivanatura.org and find the "Upcoming book" section under Publications.
2. Enter your email address in the notification field provided there.
3. Submit the form. The site says you will be sent a short message as soon as the book is released.

The site does not describe any other notification method — no social media sign-up, no pre-order list, and no calendar reminder are mentioned as alternatives. If you want to be told directly, the email form is the route the project itself offers.

What to expect after signing up

The commitment described on the page is deliberately narrow: a single publication notice when the book is released. The author explicitly states there will be no newsletters and no marketing emails. That means you should not expect updates on the book's progress, sample pages, or related Viva Natura titles through this channel — only the release announcement itself.

If you want the book sooner or in another format

The marine life guide is not yet available, so there is no ebook or print edition to buy at this point. If you are looking for Viva Natura's currently available work, the site lists Viva Natura: Field Guide to the Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals of Western Mexico — a bilingual guide to 230 species with 440 original full-color photographs. It is sold in select local bookstores and as an ebook on Amazon Kindle and Google Books. That title covers terrestrial and freshwater wildlife of Western Mexico, not the marine species the 2026 guide will address, so it is not a substitute if your interest is specifically the Tropical Pacific marine life.

Practical notes

• The release window given is "mid 2026," so the notice may arrive with little advance warning.
• The notification form is the only mechanism described; there is no stated way to pre-order.
• Because the site says no marketing emails are sent, your address is used for the release notice rather than ongoing promotion — but the page does not provide further detail on how the address is stored or used beyond that statement.

Viva Natura covers three main ecosystem groupings, all in Mexico: the Mexican Pacific coast (reefs, rocky shores, and beaches), the seasonal tropical forests of Mexico's Pacific lowlands, and the remote volcanic islands of the Revillagigedo in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Together these span both marine and terrestrial habitats, and they are the settings for the project's field guides, documentaries, and field journals.

The three ecosystem areas

Mexican Pacific

Coastal reefs, rocky shores, and beaches of Western Mexico. This is the project's marine focus, and it is also the subject of the forthcoming 2026 bilingual field guide to more than 200 marine species of Mexico's Tropical Pacific — reef fish, corals, sharks, rays, crustaceans, nudibranchs, and other marine animals.

Pacific Forests

Seasonal tropical forests of Mexico's Pacific lowlands. This is the terrestrial counterpart to the coastal work, covering the forest habitats that sit inland from the Pacific shore.

Pacific Islands

Remote volcanic islands of the Revillagigedo in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. This is the most isolated of the three areas, and it rounds out the coverage with an offshore island setting.

Marine and terrestrial scope

The coverage splits across two habitat types:

The published field guide to the amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals of Western Mexico (230 species, 440 original full-color photographs) sits on the terrestrial side, while the upcoming marine life guide covers the marine side.

How the coverage is documented

Viva Natura describes itself as a long-term natural history project documenting Mexico's landscapes and biodiversity through field observation, photography, and writing, created by Petr Myska in 2001. Over the past two decades the fieldwork has extended beyond books into documentary filmmaking, broadcast contributions, and international publications — for example, Touch of the Blue Crocodile (2012), broadcast nationally by Česká televize.

The project also publishes field journals tied to specific regions and expeditions, including Mexican Tropical Pacific Explorations, Salish Sea Explorations, and National Geographic Field Notes. Note that the Salish Sea material falls outside the three Mexico ecosystem areas above — it reflects fieldwork and publication activity rather than the core regional coverage.

If you want to explore a specific area

Start from the ecosystem you care about rather than from the book list:

• Diving or reef life in Mexico's Tropical Pacific → the Mexican Pacific marine coverage, and the forthcoming marine field guide (due mid 2026).
• Land wildlife in Western Mexico → the Pacific Forests area and the available amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals guide.
• Offshore and volcanic island habitats → the Pacific Islands area covering the Revillagigedo.

For the marine guide, the site offers an email notification list for release; the site states it sends only a publication notice, with no newsletters or marketing emails.

Viva Natura has one field guide available now and a second scheduled for 2026. Both are bilingual identification guides written and photographed by Petr Myska, and both focus on Mexican wildlife. The published volume covers terrestrial animals of Western Mexico; the forthcoming one covers marine life of the Mexican Tropical Pacific.

Available now

Viva Natura: Field Guide to the Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals of Western Mexico

The book is positioned as a practical field companion rather than a coffee-table volume — the species count and photo total suggest it is built for identification in the field, with guidance on how to use it while observing wildlife.

Forthcoming 2026

Viva Natura: Field Guide to the Marine Life of the Mexican Tropical Pacific

The author notes that people who want a release notice can register an email address on the site. According to the site, that list is used only to send a single publication notice — no newsletters and no marketing emails.

What the two books have in common

• Same author and method. Both are by Petr Myska and stem from the Viva Natura project, which has documented Mexico's landscapes and biodiversity through field observation, photography and writing since 2001.
• Bilingual field-guide format. Each is designed as a practical identification guide, not a general natural history narrative.
• Original wild photography. The photo counts refer to images taken by the author in the field rather than sourced or staged images.
• Different ecosystems, no overlap. One covers terrestrial vertebrates of Western Mexico; the other covers marine life of the Tropical Pacific. If you need both land and sea coverage, they are complementary rather than competing.

How to decide which one fits

• You are snorkeling, diving or tidepooling on Mexico's Pacific coast: the marine guide is the relevant one, but it is not out until mid 2026. Register for the release notice if you want to buy it close to publication.
• You are hiking, birdwatching or herping in Western Mexico now: the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals guide is the one you can use immediately, in print from select local bookstores or as an ebook via Amazon Kindle and Google Books.
• You want a single purchase covering the most species groups: the available terrestrial guide covers 230 species across four vertebrate classes, which is broader in taxonomic range than the marine volume's 200-plus species, though the two are not substitutes for each other.

The site does not list prices for either book, so check the retailer listing for current pricing and availability in your region.

Viva Natura is best known for its bilingual field guides to Mexican wildlife, but the project has also extended into documentary filmmaking, broadcast contributions, and international publications. According to the project's own site, this media work grew out of more than two decades of direct field observation, and it includes at least one nationally broadcast documentary, field journal contributions, and magazine writing.

Documentary Film: Touch of the Blue Crocodile (2012)

The clearest documentary credit listed on Viva Natura is Touch of the Blue Crocodile (2012). Petr Myska's role covered production, camera work, graphics, and translation, and the film was broadcast nationally by Česká televize (Czech National TV).

That combination of roles is worth noting if you are evaluating the project's media output: it was not a case of a naturalist handing footage to a separate crew. The same person documented the wildlife and shaped how it reached a broadcast audience.

Field Journals and Magazine Contributions

Beyond film, Viva Natura lists writing and field documentation in several outlets:

• National Geographic Field Notes — two sets of entries are named on the site: Mexican Tropical Pacific Explorations and Salish Sea Explorations.
• Oceanographic Magazine — listed contributions.

These sit alongside the project's books rather than replacing them. The site frames them as part of a broader natural history initiative "grounded in direct observation and exploration," which is also the stated basis for the field guides.

How the Media Work Connects to the Books

The publications and media projects share one production pipeline: fieldwork first, then output in whatever format fits. The site describes the project as documenting Mexico's landscapes and biodiversity through field observation, photography, and writing since 2001, with that material feeding into books, documentaries, and exploration-based storytelling.

A concrete example of how this shows up in the books: the forthcoming 2026 Field Guide to the Marine Life of the Mexican Tropical Pacific is described as containing over 400 full-color photographs taken by the author in the wild, covering more than 200 marine species. The same in-the-field photography practice underlies the documentary camera work.

What This Means If You Are Looking for the Media

• If you want the documentary, the site identifies Touch of the Blue Crocodile (2012) and its Czech National TV broadcast — that is the broadcast detail given, not a streaming link.
• If you want shorter field writing, the National Geographic Field Notes journals and Oceanographic Magazine contributions are the named outlets.
• If you want the long-form identification material, that is the field guide line, including the Western Mexico guide (amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) available now and the marine guide announced for mid-2026.

The site does not list pricing or access terms for the film or the magazine contributions, so check the respective outlets directly for availability.

Viva Natura is a long-term natural history project documenting Mexico's landscapes and biodiversity through field observation, photography, and writing. Created by Petr Myska in 2001, it has grown into a body of work that includes bilingual field guides, documentary film contributions, and exploration-based storytelling. It's most useful to you if you're a diver, student, or nature explorer looking for practical, photo-rich identification guides to Mexican wildlife—especially the marine and terrestrial species of the country's Pacific side.

What the project actually is

Viva Natura isn't a travel operator, a conservation NGO, or a general wildlife blog. It's a personal, observation-driven documentation project. The work is grounded in direct fieldwork: the author photographs animals in the wild and writes identification guidance from those encounters. That matters because the guides are built around what you'd realistically see in the field, not just museum specimens or secondhand records.

The project's scope has widened over two decades beyond books into documentary filmmaking, broadcast contributions, and international publications.

What's published and what's coming

The available volume covers amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals of Western Mexico, with practical field guidance aimed at an accessible introduction to the region's wildlife. The upcoming marine guide is aimed squarely at divers, students, and ocean explorers, covering reef fish, corals, sharks, rays, crustaceans, nudibranchs, and other marine animals.

Both are described as bilingual, which is a meaningful detail if you're working across English- and Spanish-speaking contexts—research, guiding, or study.

Ecosystems covered

The site organizes its subject matter by ecosystem, which is a useful way to check whether your destination is included:

• Mexican Pacific — coastal reefs, rocky shores, and beaches of Western Mexico (marine)
• Pacific Forests — seasonal tropical forests of Mexico's Pacific lowlands (terrestrial)
• Pacific Islands — remote volcanic islands of the Revillagigedo in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

If your interest is the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean side, or inland regions outside the Pacific lowlands, this project's coverage is not aimed there.

Field journals and media

Beyond the books, Viva Natura publishes field journals and has contributed to external outlets, including National Geographic field notes on Mexican Tropical Pacific and Salish Sea explorations, and Oceanographic Magazine. On the film side, Touch of the Blue Crocodile (2012) involved production, camera, graphics, and translation work and was broadcast nationally by Česká televize (Czech National TV).

These are worth knowing about if you want a sense of the project's observational style before buying a guide—the journals show how the fieldwork translates into narrative.

How to decide if it's for you

Choose Viva Natura if:

• You need a photographic identification guide to Western Mexico's terrestrial wildlife, or (from mid-2026) the marine life of the Mexican Tropical Pacific.
• You want bilingual material.
• You value guides built from the author's own wild photography rather than compiled imagery.

Look elsewhere if:

• Your region of interest is outside Mexico's Pacific side.
• You need a general travel or trip-planning resource rather than species identification.

To get notified when the marine guide is released, the site offers an email registration that it describes as a one-time publication notice—no newsletters or marketing emails. The available terrestrial guide can be found in select local bookstores or as an ebook via Amazon Kindle and Google Books.