First published in 1963, Shadows in the Sea has been a popular book about sharks and their relatives, the skates and rays. Thomas Allen tells what he learned from two major contributors to the book. One was Captain William Young, known as “Captain Shark Killer,” the other was Mack McCormick, whose shark research is now housed in American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA). According to the author, both men had a deep abiding respect for sharks.
Thomas Allen gives an evenhanded treatment of sharks in Shadows in the Sea. The author divides his subject into four parts: sharks against humans, humans against sharks, sharks as gods or food, and sharks and their relatives as fish. He opens with the famous story of the shark attack in New Jersey in 1916, which formed the basis of the popular Jaws movies. He believes that hunting sharks does not prevent shark attacks. The wrong sharks are usually killed, and the shark population is further depleted. According to Thomas Allen, sharks have a purpose in the ocean ecosystem.
In presenting human-shark history, the author explains the painting by John Singleton Copley, “Brook Watson and the Shark” (1778). The Lord Mayor of London Watson had lost his leg to a shark. Besides including a shark on his family crest, Watson also commissioned Copley to commemorate the event. However, the beast that Copley painted was not a real shark. He imagined the shark as a huge whale possessing a large jaw of sharp teeth. Most European people at that time had little concept of what sharks actually were like.
Thomas Allen recounts how the over-killing of sharks since the 1970s spurred people to save the sharks. In 1991, the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation campaigned against annual shark fishing “derbies” in California. (Since the “derbies” involved shooting sharks with guns and harpoons, the author refers to them as “massacres”.) By 1995, the Foundation was successful in stopping the organized “derbies”.
In the last half of the book, the author presents the sharks themselves, and their natural history. He writes, “Whence the Shadows? Aeons before people appeared on earth, the shark was the monarch of the primordial seas. As prehistorical era after era passed---as amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals came forth–the shark remained. The dinosaurs–Brontosaurus, Allosaurus, Triceratops, and a thousand more–stalked the earth in ponderous supremacy and vanished into extinction. But the shark lives on. Millions upon millions of years before the first precursor of man appeared, the shark began a dynasty that has remained unbroken.”
In clear language, the author explains shark naming (taxonomy) and shark anatomy. After reading this book, the reader will have a greater appreciation of sharks. Thomas Allen emphasizes that sharks are to be admired and cherished for what they do. Sharks deserve a chance to be saved from extinction.
Excerpts from Chapter on “Mako Sharks” (Isurus oxyrinchus Rafinesque, 1810) (Isurus glaucus Muller and Hele 1841)
(The Latin names are referencing two species of Mako Sharks, the surname name and dates are who named and when the species were named.)
“The mako’s fight on the hook is tireless and fierce. It will leap again and again to shake off the maddening fetter that deprives it of its freedom. Often in the open seas that it roams, the mako will leap for the seeming joy of being alive and unvanquished. Its fighting instinct is so strong that it may hunt the broad-billed swordfish, rarely menaced by any marine enemy.”
“The mako is a shark of many names, both scientific and common. The mako of the Atlantic, I. oxyrinchus, is also known as the short fin mako or the sharp-nosed mackerel. The mako of the Indo-Pacific and South Africa (I. glaucus) is called in various places, the bonito, blue pointed, blue porpoise, and snapper. In Australia and New Zealand, I. glaucus even has another scientific name Isuropis or Isurusmake Whiteby, 1929. The fact is that both oxyrinchus and glaucus are very close relatives and whenever or however they are known, they are regarded as superb game fish. Taking no sides in the name-calling, the International Game Fish Association recognizes both as the mako shark.”
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Va. Carper
August 15, 2005