Deep-Sea Research, 1971, Vol. 18, pp. 855 to 857. Pergamon Press. Printed ira Great Britain.
BOOK REVIEWS
The shark: splendid savage of the seas, JACQUES-YVES and PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, 1970. Cassell, 277 pp.
£2 "5.
The lady and the sharks, EUGENIE CLARK. Harper & Row, 269 pp. $6'95.
The natural history of sharks, THOMAS H. LINEAWEAVER and RICHARD H. BACKUS, 1970. Andr6
Deutsch, 256 pp. £2'75.
SOME years ago, while sun-bathing on a fiat-topped buoy off the Kenya coast, I became aware o f a
triangular fin patiently encircling me. My eventual dash for the shore lacked grace, and perhaps
wisdom, hut the shadows were lengthening and the prospect of an inky sea triggered panic. Retold
and a little embellished over the years, the story typifies the popular attitude to sharks: cunning,
voracious, dedicated to anthropophagy, but good subjects for a yarn. Small wonder then that few
shark books can resist anecdote and the three reviewed here are no exception. They are essentially
popular books, but knowledge of the biology, and especially the behaviour of sharks has not yet
reached a stage where meaningful observations are confined to scientific journals. In the order listed
here, however, rather little can be squeezed from the first book, as might be expected from its title;
the second is more rewarding, but patchy; while the third achieves an excellent balance between good
popular writing and sufficient factual information to satisfy a more serious audience.
For all the wealth of shark stories, these animals hardly deserve their reputation, for of the three
hundred or so species known less than thirty have been definitely implicated in attacks on men; one
is far more likely to be struck by lightning than eaten by a shark. Nevertheless, it was the tragic
losses of airmen, sailors and others awaiting rescue in tropical seas during the last war that helped to
stimulate current interest in shark research. Lineawcaver and Backus review this important aspect o f
shark studies, noting the U.S. Navy's hasty development of a Shark Chaser in 1944, two years after
their reassuring pronouncement that " sharks constitute a negligible danger to Navy personnel".
The Shark Chaser (nigrosine dye and copper acetate) seems to have done more to boost morale
than to repel sharks and the long-sought deterrent remains elusive. The emphasis in this book is
essentially on what sharks do rather than what they are. A large number of observations, drawn from
a very scattered literature, are brought to bear on feeding habits, reproduction, sensory systems and
general aspects of behaviour, the whole well salted with personal observations. This is perhaps the
most useful part of the book, although the authors have preferred to spread the information through
chapters dealing with particular species except for three short chapters dealing with general features,
reproduction and anatomy. The evident competence of the authors suggests that they could have
enlarged on the anatomy and physiology of sharks in an equally readable manner. The heavy paper,
well-leaded type and near fifty illustrations inflate a hook that tells only part of a fascinating story--
but certainly n o t " everything that is known about sharks " as the jacket blurb would have it. Rather
a lot is known about teeth and dentieles, for example, but neither merit proper description. Another
drawback is the lack of author/date references in the text, apparently for the reason that "citations
of books and journals in the text are there not to illustrate relentless library research, but to obviate
the necessity for a cumbersome b i b l i o g r a p h y . . . " The many early (and some very early) references
suggest more than a casual afternoon in the library, and those who try running some of these to earth
may wonder why a bibliography should be more cumbersome than a glossary of shark species with
origins and meanings of their scientific names (ten pages). Apart from this, the book compares very
favourably with other recent works on sharks, at least in the popular field, and if all fall short of
M c C O R M I C K , ALLEN and YOUNG'S Shadows in the sea (1963), at least Lineaweaver and Backus have
much to add that is new and of interest.
The lady and the sharks is really an account of the founding of the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory
in Florida and the work carried out there, with an emphasis on sharks but with anecdotes on many
other marine topics. It is rather rare nowadays for a scientist to be asked by a wealthy patron, in this
case William H. Vanderbilt, to start and direct a research establishment, but Eugenie Clark not only
had this good fortune but has shown herself equal to the task. Her knowledge of ichthyology is
combined with a fluent style to produce a rather racy Fabre of the bays and keys, at times even a
little girlish but full of interest. In the context of sharks, the most important episodes have been the
visits by other ichthyologists attracted by the facilities and her own fascinating work on the behaviour
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856 Book Reviews
and training of Lemon Sharks. The popularity of Lady with a spear (which ran to eight Japanese
editions) suggests that her present book will reach a large audience.
The two Cousteans found their patron in David Wolper, who financed an expedition to make
twelve television films of underwater life. Unwisely, they chose to make a book out of each episode,
of which The Shark is the first. The jacket claims that " a n incredibly high standard" has been set,
not least in "scientific accuracy ", whereas the reader is treated to an extraordinary mixture of
garbled language and misleading or incorrect facts. Sharks are said to have an "obscure millenary
instinct ", " a superior reproduction organism ", "sensorial canals" of the "lateral system" that
contain "finely lidded nerve cells" which release " a nervous i n f l u x . . , instantly communicated to
the brain ". They are said to have appeared in Cretaceous times and " t h e skeletons of sharks, being
entirely cartilaginous, leave no trace ", which may excuse the authors' ignorance of the fossil record
but is simply not true. Throughout, there is a tendency to attribute qualities to the shark--a most
resourceful fellow it seems. Common vernacular names are often ignored and the Latin binomials may
lack the generic name or the species name is given a capital, or even a plural suffix. The translator has
done no more than write the book into English and his ineptitude is only matched by that of the
publishers in allowing the book to go forward without even a cursory vetting by a zoologist.
These three books illustrate the difficulty of writing good popular science. The best combination
seems to be that of the professional scientist (Backus) and the journalist (Lineaweaver), who have
produced a highly readable and accurate book which will appeal to a wide range of readers, whether
they have been circled by a triangular fin or not.
Department of Zoology, P . J . P . WHrrmmAD
British Museum (Natural History),
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7.
Optical properties of the sea, JEROMEWILLIAMS,1970. United States Naval Institute, 123 pp. £4-10.
Trns is a very readable and useful Monograph on the basic optical properties of seawater. It has a
well-written Introduction stressing the need to be able to predict the performance of the human
observer or his equipment at any chosen site. Professor Williams also stresses the need for a clear
understanding of the physical parameters in radiometry and photometry, and takes care to define
these in some detail. He is then able to go on and develop a useful theoretical model of the sea which
will allow predictions to be made after the required physical parameters, such as the extinction and
attenuation coefficients and also transparency, have been measured. The last chapter describes the
instruments available for these measurements, and the possible pitfalls in using them. Even the time-
honoured Secchi disc is closely scrutinized and justly criticized, with an analysis showing just what it
does and doesn't measure.
Obvious practical problems are also discussed and physically explained, such as the eye's
disappointing response to a flashing search beacon, or the difficulties of judging size and speed of
animals viewed through a perspex submarine window. In this context it would have been helpful to
have had some photographs illustrating the practical side, but unfortunately none are provided.
There are one or two minor mistakes, both grammatical and mathematical, which are almost
certainly due to inadequate proof reading; but they do not seriously impair the logical discussion
presented.
My general impression was of a thoughtfully composed and well-written book, with exemplary
diagrams, which should provide a good physical basis for anyone interested in the performance of
light in the sea.
National Institute of Oceanography, J.S. RUSBY
Wormley, Godalming, Surrey.
Aquatic chemistry: an introduction emphasizing chemical equilibria in natural waters, WERNERSTUMM
and JAMESJ. MORGAN, 1970. Wiley-Interscience, 583 pp. Illus.
ThE AUTHORSof Aquatic chemistry provide a systematic examination of the chemistry of natural
waters through the use of chemical thermodynamics. This is a valuable approach because it shows
that there is order in nature rather than a chaos of disconnected events, and that the chemistry of
natural waters can often be understood and sometimes predicted by the use of the equilibrium
concept. The book has the additional advantage of being reasonably self-contained, as basic chemical
concepts are first discussed and then applied to natural systems. A wealth of examples and a fine
bibliography are presented throughout the text.
