, Paul de Gelder (HarperCollins) and , David Shiffman (Johns Hopkins University Press)
BY FEBRUARY 2009, Paul de Gelder had spent thousands of hours in the water as part of his job as a diver in the Australian Navy.
Early one morning, he was conducting a counterterrorism trial, swimming solo around Sydney Harbour, when he was attacked by a 3-metre-long shark. The fish slammed into him with its jaws, pinning de Gelder鈥檚 right hand to his leg. He recalls being shaken like a rag doll, feeling more pain than he had ever imagined possible. Then the shark let go.
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鈥淪everal surgical operations later,鈥� writes de Gelder in his new book, Shark, 鈥淚 woke up to find that I was missing half an arm and a leg.鈥� What comes next in this amazing story is unexpected. As soon as he was able to, he returned to the water 鈥� and, seeking to understand exactly what had happened to him, he started reading about sharks.
The attack may have ended de Gelder鈥檚 military career, but it led to a new one: as a presenter for Shark Week programmes on the Discovery Channel and as a passionate advocate for shark conservation.
In Shark, he sets out to justify its subtitle, 鈥淲hy we need to save the world鈥檚 most misunderstood predator鈥�. It is an accessible book, methodically skewering common myths and misrepresentations before showing how overfishing and other human activities are driving sharks to extinction.
Those who already share de Gelder鈥檚 fascination with sharks, or who seek the science about them, may not learn much. He becomes a guide for those who need help overcoming their fear with his infectious interest and military straight-talking, though he is notably circumspect on what Shark Week and his role in programmes such as Bride of Jaws have done to stoke unsubstantiated fears.
Even so, de Gelder鈥檚 uncommon perspective does distinguish the book, and it amplifies his call to protect sharks: if he sounds the alarm, the rest of us should at least take notice.
Another new book mounts a more pointed argument. Why Sharks Matter: A deep dive with the world鈥檚 most misunderstood predator is the first book by marine conservation biologist David Shiffman at Arizona State University in Tempe, who has gained a large Twitter following thanks to his educational and entertaining posts.
Shiffman retains that chatty style in print, but takes the reader on the kind of 鈥渄eep dive鈥� precluded by Twitter鈥檚 character limit. The book is littered with bits of trivia and detail about sharks that could only be amassed through detailed research.
But Shiffman鈥檚 focus is less on mounting a persuasive, general case for a much-maligned predator than on highlighting effective, smart solutions for conserving them.
He has an outspoken, even combative style when it comes to misdirected or ill-informed advocacy, such as that of online petitions 鈥� a particular bugbear of his. Thankfully, Shiffman is just as quick to celebrate those who advance the interests of sharks, profiling a diverse group of dedicated scientists (itself laudable in a field dominated by white men). His bluntness and specificity is refreshing in the face of so much advocacy that just sets its sights at 鈥渞aising awareness鈥�.
In the decades since the book and the film Jaws, there has been a concerted effort to rebrand sharks from mindless killing machines to infinitely interesting marvels of evolution and essentials of ocean ecosystems. Even Shark Week now attempts some balancing of fearmongering and fascination.
Where de Gelder and Shiffman align is in their condemnation of irresponsible coverage of sharks, their calls for the public to be both curious about sharks and active in saving them, and in their undeniable knowledge and passion. But neither quite succeeds in telling a shark story as straightforwardly compelling as (as Benchley himself realised, dedicating the rest of his life to conservation).
Today, most people with a passing interest in the natural world recognise that even the most fearsome predators are more endangered by us than are a danger to us. Ironically, that fear factor 鈥� if responsibly and strategically deployed 鈥� could prove their secret weapon against the biggest threat of all: human apathy.
