The Shark Chronicles: A Scientist Tracks the Consummate Predator

By Beverly McMillan, John Musick, John A. Musick

Book Overview

"Hands-down . . . the most entertaining and informative shark book I've ever read. Written with insight, humor, and great authority." - Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean Few animals elicit the same mythical terror as sharks, and yet we know little about these elusive, ancient creatures. Internationally renowned shark researcher John A. Musick and science writer Beverly McMillan bring us along on a thrilling adventure as they track sharks from fossil quarries in Bear Gulch, Montana, to a nurse shark mating lagoon in the Dry Tortugas. By way of Alaska, Japan, the Bimini islands, and the world's leading shark-research labs, we discover how sharks navigateusing electromagnetic signals, have a bloodhound's sense of smell, are both cold- and warm-blooded, and possess biochemical weapons that someday might help us fend off tumors and microbes. Excavating the secret lives of sharks from the dark recesses of the oceans, this captivating scientific exploration challenges us to rethink our relationship with sharks, leaving us with the question: Are humans the prey, or the predator?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805073590
• ISBN13: 9780805073591
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.7" x 5.5"

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!