Book Review - Shark: The Illustrated Biography - Princeton University Press

      Over the last two or three years my familiarity with sharks has grown exponentially, thanks primarily to books published by Princeton University Press, and a couple of well executed TV documentaries.

     Daniel C. Abel has become a trusted, authoritative figure in this quest, and it was with pleasure that I saw that he had co-authored this book with Sophie A. Maycock. Abel writes with a fluid style that is pleasing to read, communicating science in a manner accessible to the layman, the primary audience for a book of this nature, yet losing not one scintilla of precision in the process.

     Maycock was entirely unknown to me, and I am unable to determine what was written by her, but I sense that most of the text is the work of Abel.

     As a devotee of etymology I was especially delighted that the origins of scientific names are consistently explained. For those with an inquiring turn of mind, this can only serve to enhance the experience of learning about sharks.

     As the subtitle of the book implies, this is a biography of four principal actors in the grand world of shark theatre - White Shark, Sandbar Shark, Smallspotted Catshark, and Spiny Dogfish. Along the way, however, all species are examined, the cast of supporting characters so to speak, as the plot unfolds and heads toward dénouement. 

     We learn about their habitat, feeding patterns, abundance or lack thereof, migration, reproduction, and threats. No aspect of shark ethology is left untouched.

     The book is delicately illustrated with watercolours, an appropriate medium I would say!

     Sharks the world over are under threat in the Anthropocene; some species, in fact, are critically endangered and teetering on the brink of extinction. Much has been written about the Sixth Extinction, well advanced by now, with the loss of many organisms in all of Earth's habitats. Some sharks could be the poster child for this terrifying period in the history of life on the planet.

     Human attitudes towards sharks has consistently been one of mild terror at best, to outright hysteria at worst, and since the movie Jaws premiered in 1975, hysteria has been on the ascendancy. There are signs that this uber-irrational response is being tempered somewhat with the advent of shark tourism, but visceral fear is still the default reaction of many.

     As is the case with some politicians, for many people facts don't matter, but rest assured that the likelihood of mortality from a shark attack is infinitesimally small when compared with daily, familiar hazards in your life.

     There are glimmers of hope that certain shark populations are recovering due to enlightened management practices, and enhanced interest in conservation and the environment, but the overall threat remains. We continue to flood the oceans with garbage, especially plastics, increase the seas' temperatures, impair the direction and seasonality of currents, acidify the water, develop shoreline habitat - and on and on. None of these changes are beneficial to sharks, nor to all the other organisms that share their world. And not to humans, either.

     Please read this book, enjoy it, but take heed. Perhaps together we can make a difference.

Shark: The Illustrated Biography - Princeton University Press

Daniel C. Abel and Sophie A. Maycock

Hardcover - US$29.95 - ISBN: 9780691261676

224 pages - 6.5 x 9 inches (16.25 x 22.5 cm)

100 colour illustrations

Publication date: 25 March, 2025