The Great White Shark Scientist
(Scientists in the Field Series)
HMH Books for Young Readers, ISBN 978-0544352988
With shark populations crashing worldwide—thanks to ignorance of these mysterious creatures, overfishing, and the popularity of shark fin soup (selling at $350 per bowl!)—the biologist Dr. Greg Skomal wants to better understand the habits and habitats of the most feared and maligned shark of all, the great white.
“Great whites are not at all what people say about them,” Greg stresses. They’re not hyper, all curmudgeonly and angry and wanting to kill something.” More people are killed by toilets each year than by great white sharks. “They’re laid back,” says Greg. “They’re calm. They’re beautiful.” In fact, they’re Greg’s favorite sharks. And now, finally, he has a chance to study them–practically in his back yard, just off the coast of New England’s iconic Cape Cod.
Here, great whites are staging a phenomenal comeback from near extinction, offering Greg and his team an unrivaled opportunity to study these mysterious and misunderstood predators. The author Sy Montgomery and photographer Keith Ellenbogen come along with Greg and his team as they locate, identify, film and track great whites, often just off some of the Cape’s most popular beaches.
Then Sy and Keith are off to Guadeloupe, Mexico. Protected by the steel bars of a cage, divers can get nearly close enough to touch some of the fabled sharks, who can grow to 16 feet, and whose 300 razor-sharp teeth can effortlessly bite off the head of an 800-pound elephant seal. This is true immersion journalism. Join them on this thrilling expedition into the real of great whites, and discover the surprising truth about the most feared fish on the planet.