The Shark Chronicles: A Scientist Tracks the Consummate Predator - Hardcover

Musick, John; McMillan, Beverly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805070931 ISBN 13: 9780805070934

Publisher: Times Books, 2002

Synopsis

Many animals elicit the same mythical terror and awe as sharks, and yet we know little about these elusive, highly engineered creatures. John A. Musick and Beverly McMillan bring us along on a thrilling adventure as they chase sharks from Bear Gulch, Montana, to a whale shark-feeding station in Okinawa, by way of Alaska, the Bimini islands, and the most sophisticated shark-research labs in the world. En route we discover that sharks navigate using electromagnetic signals, have a bloodhound's sense of smell, are both cold- and warm-blooded, and possess biochemical weapons, which, used properly, might indeed help fend off malignant tumors and microbes.

Musick, who has spent over thirty years as a defender of the much-maligned shark, here excavates the mysterious lives of sharks from the dark recesses of the oceans--and raising the alarm about how fishing and industry are reducing their numbers and affecting their behavior. This captivating and educational scientific exploration challenges us to rethink our relationship with sharks, leaving us with the question: Are humans the prey, or the predator?

About this title

About the Author

John Musick is an internationally-recognized shark researcher and professor of marine science at the College of William and Mary. He lives in Gloucester, Virginia.

Beverly McMillan is author of Titanic: Fortune and Fate and co-author of Oceans: Life in the Deep. She lives in Gloucester, Virginia.

From Publishers Weekly

Reading Musick, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science professor, and McMillan (Titanic: Fortune and Fate) is like watching a nature documentary: you're consumed not so much by storytelling as by factoids: sharks have taste buds, have been around for more than 400 million years and can be warm-blooded. Shark stomachs have turned up "license plates, carcasses of dogs, birds, and horses, and sides of rotten beef jettisoned by cruise ships. The navy occasionally finds evidence of shark bites on its submarines." This comprehensive look at the much-feared creatures takes readers from Montana to Mexico to Malaysia, tracing the fish's development from ancient ur-shark to sea king. Musick and McMillan discuss fossil excavations and evolutionary biology, debunk the myth that shark cartilage is a cancer cure and show how the shark became a favorite media scapegoat, all while narrating their own research travels across the globe. These on-the-spot reports can seem somewhat gratuitous and, along with cheeky chapter titles like "The Carnivore Cafe" and "Sex, Sharks, and Videotape," they start to feel like a panicked and unnecessary attempt to compensate for the book's hard-science tilt. Nonetheless, Jaws junkies will eat up the fascinating shark facts sprinkled liberally through the book, and armchair naturalists will enjoy both the evolutionary perspective and the authors' look at the environmental threats facing the shark, a victim of overfishing and "recreation." It seems that even the "consummate predator" is no match for human industry.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Times Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0805070931
• ISBN 13: 9780805070934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288