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The Shark Chronicles: A Scientist Tracks the Consummate Predator
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 Are humans the prey, or the predator?
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 Are humans the prey, or the predator?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2002
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227 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 9, 2021
Very readable and quick overview of all things shark, at 222 pages long enough to provide a decent amount of information and occasionally getting in depth on a few issues, but not so long I think to be daunting to the average non-specialist reader. It appeared to mention a lot of the most up to date shark research, including references of on-going scientific research projects, though as it was published in 2002 I don’t know how out of date those elements are. I can’t imagine most of the book though isn’t still accurate and useful.
There is a prologue, ten numbered chapters, and an epilogue. The prologue is really brief, followed by chapter one, “In the Beginning,” which is about shark evolution and prominently features a visit to Bear Gulch, “a sixteen-mile-long, fossil-rich limestone schism” in Montana dating back to the 320 million years ago (the Carboniferous Period) that is very rich in shark fossils. The discussions of shark evolution were interesting with lots of interesting discussions of shark anatomy (for “a long time it was supposed that the cartilaginous frame of a shark is simply an archaic feature, evolved before animals could make bone and never altered…though…it’s more likely that it is an evolutionary specialization that makes the skeleton strong, light, and elastic, all of which translates into less energy needed to move the body”). I liked the discussion of the different types of shark fossils found at Bear Gulch, though the chapter had a good bit of technical jargon at times in my opinion. Chapter two, “The Players,” was a whirlwind tour of the various major groups of sharks in the world today (as well as skates and rays). I liked some of the more personalized descriptions of some sharks, such as noting that the shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) is “surely the most beautiful shark in the sea” and if “the mako’s body is a torpedo, the round, deeper torso of its cousin the salmon shark (Lamna ditropus) suggests a battleship’s artillery round.” I liked how though time is spent on the most popular, well-known sharks, the authors still detailed others like skates, rays, guitarfish, and sawfishes (if only briefly). Chapter three, “Fearful Symmetry,” details lots of basic elements of shark anatomy and physiology, including how exactly sharks swim, adaptations in fins and shark skin (specifically denticles, scales that cover sharks and are unique to sharks and their close relations) and how they serve to increase lift and decrease drag while swimming, how sharks achieve buoyancy in the water, and how some species of sharks are warm-blooded (with a discussion of the rete mirabile, “a heat-exchanging “marvelous net” of tightly interlacing blood vessels” that keeps the muscles and some organs of certain species of sharks considerably warmer than the temperature of the surrounding water). Chapter four, “Sex, Sharks, and Videotape,” is all about shark sex and reproduction. There is great coverage of a study in Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida of a long-term project studying nurse shark mating, plus lots of fun facts like an embryonic sand tiger, while still inside the mother, “begins fulfilling its predatory destiny by eating its siblings,” and the “record for longest pregnancy of any animal on Earth, an estimated three-plus years, is held by the frilled shark, which also lives in cold water and develops slowly.” Chapter five, “Eye, Ear, Nose, and Snout,” is all on the senses sharks use to navigate their world, find mates, and hunt. My favorite part was a good discussion of how sharks are able to detect electoral auras by means of sensory organs called ampullae of Lorenzini, some interesting passages on how sharks hear, and an introduction to the concept of agnostic behavior, stress-related behavior that sharks use to signal to others that they are agitated and to at least with other sharks “avoid potentially fatal injury that could result from fighting.” Chapter six, “Shark Worlds,” discussed among other things the “activity space” of sharks, “the area in which an animal spends the bulk of its time during a given period.” Included discussion of shark migration, as well as blue sharks, whale sharks, and the famous great whites of the Farallon Islands twenty miles west of San Francisco. Chapter seven, “The Carnivore Café,” was on shark predation, with discussion of the four ways sharks feed (“ram feeding, through suction, by biting their quarry, or by filtering it from the sea”), ontogenetic changes in feeding (sharks at different age groups having different diets), and how different species of sharks have different teeth that are adapted for different feeding techniques and prey. Chapter eight, “Shark Eats Man,” is on shark attacks on humans, with discussion of the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), the different types of shark attacks on people (bump-and-bite and sneak attacks), what humans do that invite sharks attacks (such as whether or not wearing a certain color makes a shark attack more likely), and whether or not shark diving tours feeding sharks for scuba diving tourists make sharks more likely to attack people by altering shark behavior, encouraging sharks to associate people with food, and what effects feeding sharks might have on reef ecology (“If sharks congregate regularly around the feeding sites in unnaturally large numbers, the influx might well perturb the natural structure of the reef community, where normally only a few apex predators are present”). Chapter nine, “The Shark Pharmacy,” is on the ways sharks don’t help humans medically, such as the faddish, useless shark cartilage pills touted by scammers to prevent or cure cancer (“no well-designed, unbiased scientific study has confirmed ingested shark cartilage to be of any significant human health benefit”), and where sharks might help medicine through in-depth scientific studies of the shark immune system, that while sharks can and do get cancer, the immune system of sharks is nonetheless remarkable and promises huge breakthroughs for human medicine. Chapter ten, “Man Eats Shark,” was a sad chapter on shark fishing and almost always, shark overfishing. Whether the whole animal was consumed, or just sought after for its fins, or was being killed as bycatch by fishermen looking for other target fish, sharks are in serious danger worldwide, including many once common species. Dovetailing with earlier discussion of shark reproduction, shark birthrates and other factors in how they produce young make sharks especially vulnerable to fishing, particularly due to low numbers of young produced, how long it takes sharks to reach sexual maturity, and the fact many species produce offspring only every other year. Discussions included attempts to curtail shark overfishing and ban the shark fin trade, which is cruel, wasteful, and liable to exterminate multiple species of sharks.
It was a good overview. Some sections I think were too brief, such as the introduction to the various types of sharks in the world. Sometimes really interesting elements in certain chapters only got a single paragraph. A few times such as discussions of the different shapes of prehistoric shark teeth or aspects of internal shark anatomy could have really benefitted from some illustrations. There are no photographs or other illustrations in the book, nor is there a bibliography (though there is an index). A few times a few chapters could be a little dry and sometimes in a chapter where the authors go join a study sometimes that element was very well utilized and covered (such as visiting the nurse shark mating study in the Dry Tortugas, which was fun reading, but other times this element barely seemed to figure into that chapter). I think the discussion of shark anatomy and behavior could often be quite good though, as was the section on discussions of real medical breakthroughs possible from studying sharks. The overall writing tone was gentle, patient, knowledgeable, and with a very mild sense of humor. It was definitely a primer, lacking any strong narrative drive, and while there were tales of shark research or being out in the field, no long epic stories. Definitely no sensationalism in the chapter on shark attacks but instead a calm, slow, methodical approach.
There is a prologue, ten numbered chapters, and an epilogue. The prologue is really brief, followed by chapter one, “In the Beginning,” which is about shark evolution and prominently features a visit to Bear Gulch, “a sixteen-mile-long, fossil-rich limestone schism” in Montana dating back to the 320 million years ago (the Carboniferous Period) that is very rich in shark fossils. The discussions of shark evolution were interesting with lots of interesting discussions of shark anatomy (for “a long time it was supposed that the cartilaginous frame of a shark is simply an archaic feature, evolved before animals could make bone and never altered…though…it’s more likely that it is an evolutionary specialization that makes the skeleton strong, light, and elastic, all of which translates into less energy needed to move the body”). I liked the discussion of the different types of shark fossils found at Bear Gulch, though the chapter had a good bit of technical jargon at times in my opinion. Chapter two, “The Players,” was a whirlwind tour of the various major groups of sharks in the world today (as well as skates and rays). I liked some of the more personalized descriptions of some sharks, such as noting that the shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) is “surely the most beautiful shark in the sea” and if “the mako’s body is a torpedo, the round, deeper torso of its cousin the salmon shark (Lamna ditropus) suggests a battleship’s artillery round.” I liked how though time is spent on the most popular, well-known sharks, the authors still detailed others like skates, rays, guitarfish, and sawfishes (if only briefly). Chapter three, “Fearful Symmetry,” details lots of basic elements of shark anatomy and physiology, including how exactly sharks swim, adaptations in fins and shark skin (specifically denticles, scales that cover sharks and are unique to sharks and their close relations) and how they serve to increase lift and decrease drag while swimming, how sharks achieve buoyancy in the water, and how some species of sharks are warm-blooded (with a discussion of the rete mirabile, “a heat-exchanging “marvelous net” of tightly interlacing blood vessels” that keeps the muscles and some organs of certain species of sharks considerably warmer than the temperature of the surrounding water). Chapter four, “Sex, Sharks, and Videotape,” is all about shark sex and reproduction. There is great coverage of a study in Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida of a long-term project studying nurse shark mating, plus lots of fun facts like an embryonic sand tiger, while still inside the mother, “begins fulfilling its predatory destiny by eating its siblings,” and the “record for longest pregnancy of any animal on Earth, an estimated three-plus years, is held by the frilled shark, which also lives in cold water and develops slowly.” Chapter five, “Eye, Ear, Nose, and Snout,” is all on the senses sharks use to navigate their world, find mates, and hunt. My favorite part was a good discussion of how sharks are able to detect electoral auras by means of sensory organs called ampullae of Lorenzini, some interesting passages on how sharks hear, and an introduction to the concept of agnostic behavior, stress-related behavior that sharks use to signal to others that they are agitated and to at least with other sharks “avoid potentially fatal injury that could result from fighting.” Chapter six, “Shark Worlds,” discussed among other things the “activity space” of sharks, “the area in which an animal spends the bulk of its time during a given period.” Included discussion of shark migration, as well as blue sharks, whale sharks, and the famous great whites of the Farallon Islands twenty miles west of San Francisco. Chapter seven, “The Carnivore Café,” was on shark predation, with discussion of the four ways sharks feed (“ram feeding, through suction, by biting their quarry, or by filtering it from the sea”), ontogenetic changes in feeding (sharks at different age groups having different diets), and how different species of sharks have different teeth that are adapted for different feeding techniques and prey. Chapter eight, “Shark Eats Man,” is on shark attacks on humans, with discussion of the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), the different types of shark attacks on people (bump-and-bite and sneak attacks), what humans do that invite sharks attacks (such as whether or not wearing a certain color makes a shark attack more likely), and whether or not shark diving tours feeding sharks for scuba diving tourists make sharks more likely to attack people by altering shark behavior, encouraging sharks to associate people with food, and what effects feeding sharks might have on reef ecology (“If sharks congregate regularly around the feeding sites in unnaturally large numbers, the influx might well perturb the natural structure of the reef community, where normally only a few apex predators are present”). Chapter nine, “The Shark Pharmacy,” is on the ways sharks don’t help humans medically, such as the faddish, useless shark cartilage pills touted by scammers to prevent or cure cancer (“no well-designed, unbiased scientific study has confirmed ingested shark cartilage to be of any significant human health benefit”), and where sharks might help medicine through in-depth scientific studies of the shark immune system, that while sharks can and do get cancer, the immune system of sharks is nonetheless remarkable and promises huge breakthroughs for human medicine. Chapter ten, “Man Eats Shark,” was a sad chapter on shark fishing and almost always, shark overfishing. Whether the whole animal was consumed, or just sought after for its fins, or was being killed as bycatch by fishermen looking for other target fish, sharks are in serious danger worldwide, including many once common species. Dovetailing with earlier discussion of shark reproduction, shark birthrates and other factors in how they produce young make sharks especially vulnerable to fishing, particularly due to low numbers of young produced, how long it takes sharks to reach sexual maturity, and the fact many species produce offspring only every other year. Discussions included attempts to curtail shark overfishing and ban the shark fin trade, which is cruel, wasteful, and liable to exterminate multiple species of sharks.
It was a good overview. Some sections I think were too brief, such as the introduction to the various types of sharks in the world. Sometimes really interesting elements in certain chapters only got a single paragraph. A few times such as discussions of the different shapes of prehistoric shark teeth or aspects of internal shark anatomy could have really benefitted from some illustrations. There are no photographs or other illustrations in the book, nor is there a bibliography (though there is an index). A few times a few chapters could be a little dry and sometimes in a chapter where the authors go join a study sometimes that element was very well utilized and covered (such as visiting the nurse shark mating study in the Dry Tortugas, which was fun reading, but other times this element barely seemed to figure into that chapter). I think the discussion of shark anatomy and behavior could often be quite good though, as was the section on discussions of real medical breakthroughs possible from studying sharks. The overall writing tone was gentle, patient, knowledgeable, and with a very mild sense of humor. It was definitely a primer, lacking any strong narrative drive, and while there were tales of shark research or being out in the field, no long epic stories. Definitely no sensationalism in the chapter on shark attacks but instead a calm, slow, methodical approach.
August 2, 2025
This isn’t a book for everyone. It’s very scientific and very informative. For someone who is completely obsessed with all things sharks, it was great!
Want to read
April 19, 2016#
NC
Own in hardback.
FS: "It was hot as hell down in the fo'c'sle and a great relief to climb the ladder up to the main deck where a fresh breeze was blowing cool salt spray over the starboard rail."
LS: "Entrusted with the care of so much biological wealth, don't we all bear a responsibility to do what we can to pass on that inheritance, whole and undiminished, to the generations who will follow?"
NC
Own in hardback.
FS: "It was hot as hell down in the fo'c'sle and a great relief to climb the ladder up to the main deck where a fresh breeze was blowing cool salt spray over the starboard rail."
LS: "Entrusted with the care of so much biological wealth, don't we all bear a responsibility to do what we can to pass on that inheritance, whole and undiminished, to the generations who will follow?"
December 20, 2008
Split unevenly between actual anecdotes of sharks and cursory information readily available from your average high school biology textbook, this book only excels in the former. Boring, which is unforgivable in a book about sharks.
August 6, 2011
Unusually in depth study of all aspects of sharks. It's told from a scientists point of view, but very understandable to a general audience. It clears up a lot of misconceptions people have. You'll never eat shark fin soup again.
October 23, 2013
Too much shark and not enough chronicles - sort of a snoozer.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews