The Shark Chronicles: A Scientist Tracks the Consummate Predator

By Beverly McMillan, John Musick, John A. Musick

Book Overview

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?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805070931
• ISBN13: 9780805070934
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Every shark aficionado should have this book

I'm fascinated by sharks, and so glad I bought this book. It provides an interesting account of sharks and their evolution, and highlights how little we still know of them through first-hand accounts. It can get slightly bogged down in science for a purely casual reader, but provides a wealth of interesting information all the same. It also goes a long way toward dispelling media myths, and recognizing sharks -- with reverence and respect rather than condemnation -- for what they are: apex predators par excellence. Buy this book!

Fascinating Look into the World of the Shark

The tales of a shark researcher and his colleagues and friends serve as the vehicle for instructing the reader on the fascinating world of the Shark. This narrative trick works in this book much better than I had anticipated, since the vignettes presented quickly depart from the story of the researchers involved and delve into the secrets of the shark they uncovered instead. And the secrets are fascinating. Shark fossils, shark senses, shark sex, shark behavior, shark attack (of course), threats to sharks and surprising data on shark intelligence are all presented in a book that breezes by too quickly. Well worth the price of admission!