This book was awarded the ECI Prize 1997 in limnetic ecology. It is the outcome of years of offshore studies, of intimate personal experience and of extended discussions with colleagues and friends from different parts of the globe. Without losing sight of major contemporary topics, Maciej focuses on conflicts between starvation and predation, between strategies of survival and of energy procurement, between the need for protection and the search for food. The author explores a wealth of facts, concepts and theories.