Book Review - The Lives of Sharks: A Natural History of Shark Life - Princeton University Press

      Who does not have a fascination with these awesome denizens of the deep (and the shallow too, in fact)? It may have been fueled by lurid tales and films, by misconceptions about shark attacks on humans, or (hopefully) by study of the literature and knowledge gleaned from excellent documentary films. Once you come to a proper understanding of sharks, notions of dread or revulsion will be replaced with admiration and respect for ancient creatures that inhabit the oceans of the world, from the warm tropics to the frigid waters of the Arctic; from the surface to the deep abyss.

     This truly excellent book by Daniel C. Abel and R. Dean Grubbs provides a marvelous introduction to the world's sharks, and as you read though it chapter by chapter your knowledge will grow exponentially - to say nothing of your appreciation. When you have finished the book I am quite sure you will be justified in awarding yourself a college credit! As for the lab work, a visit to a well-known aquarium may have to suffice!

     Much of the overwrought frenzy around sharks revolves around the likelihood of being attacked while bathing at your favourite beach by a malevolent creature with jaws as big as a bulldozer with teeth.  In fact, sharks respond to perceived threats, and attacks on humans are not predatory. When an attack does unfortunately occur sensational publicity heightens fear to a level verging on hysteria. According to the International Shark Attack File, an authoritative database of both shark bites and attacks, in 2021 there were only 79 unprovoked human-shark interactions, and 39 provoked bites.

     In Australia, in 2022, there were 1,194 road crash deaths, compared with 9 sharks incidents, only one of which was fatal. You are more likely - far more likely - to get killed driving to work than going for a swim.

     There are currently 36 families and about 543  species of shark known to science. The book carefully takes us through the evolution and diversity of sharks, their adaptations, and ecology. We meet the sharks of the open ocean, those of the deep sea, those of estuaries and rivers, and the inhabitants of the continental shelves.

     To conclude each section there are detailed accounts of individual species with common and scientific name, a range map, a full page colour illustration and concise yet complete information about the species.

     The last section, Sharks and Us, gives us the greatest concern. As has always happened, when wildlife and humans confront each other, it spells trouble for wildlife. Not only have we degraded, destroyed and polluted the habitat for sharks - and along with it for every other organism - we have inflicted unforgiving and unrelenting misery and death upon these magnificent creatures. We have lopped off their fins while they are still alive and tossed them back into the ocean to a slow, lingering death, all to satisfy a perverse craving for soup. Their skin is used to make belts and fashion accessories. We fish in ways that ensures their demise in what is euphemistically termed "bycatch", we litter the oceans with discarded nets so that they are trapped and struggle until death mercifully comes to them. We pour mind-blowing quantities of raw sewage, plastics and other pollutants into their living space. Coastal mangroves - vital living space for young sharks - are being destroyed at a record pace - and on and on it goes.

     In perhaps what may be the final indignity - at least it seems that way to me - these archetypal representatives of ancestral natural magnificence are being used as fish and chips, especially in Britain and Australia.

     Conservation laws have been enacted, international treaties signed, and soaring rhetoric spouted from the mouths of many. Laws are only as good as their enforcement, however, and that is often sadly lacking, especially by nations that openly flout them and care little for international condemnation.

     Climate change may be the ultimate nail in the proverbial coffin as the ocean temperatures rise and currents that regulate life on Earth are disrupted. Life on Earth would be impoverished without sharks, but I fear that by then it will be without us too.

     Even if you have never thought about sharks before, get this book and study it well. You will at least understand these titans of the ocean and marvel at them before it is too late.

     Congratulations and many thanks to Abel and Grubbs for a job well done.

The Lives of Sharks: A Natural History of Shark Life - Princeton University Press

Daniel C. Abel and R. Dean Grubbs

Hardcover - US$35.00 - ISBN: 9780691244310

288 pages - 7.5 x 9.5 inches (18.75 x 23.75 cm)

150 + colour illustrations

Publication date: 19 September, 2023