As a diver, there are aspects of diving that we like more than others, and because of my background in veterinary medicine in exotic animals, a lot of my life has been spent taking care of animals. It goes without saying that I have a real passion for animals and wildlife, and because of that, I love everything about aquatic wildlife (marine life). Having a professional background in animal care and natural history, I am often very frustrated when on shark dives and several people become experts spitting out everything they ever heard on shark week, which a lot of is entertaining, it actually tells you very little about the animals other then they have teeth, and they bite.
This has led me to a personal project of reading every academic textbook on sharks’ natural history. To my heart’s breaking, the list is very short, but if there is a list of books, it’s only because of people like the author of this book, Greg Skomal. I want to introduce you to his latest book, Chasing Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White.
Greg Skomal describes himself as a lifelong nature lover, to which I can relate. From a very young age, he knew he wanted to work with wildlife. When he had the opportunity to work with sharks, his life changed in a way he would have never imagined.
Greg takes us on a journey of serious ups and downs, describing the challenge he had dealt with to try and learn more about the incredible animal, the great white. Dealing with how little we knew about the animals from lack of research, when sharks started to come back to the Cape Cod areas in the last 80s, that was his opportunity to change the record and start adding to our body of knowledge. Greg went from contacting fishermen at shark derbies to having access to the carcasses for dissections in order to have publishable data. To begin a long-term, least-invasive tracking study of sharks up and down the east.
Greg shares his experience working with the very popular organization OCEARCH, which was very eye-opening regarding the organization’s motives relative to what is presented on TV.
There is one passage that I related to in this book from my time working with wildlife and large predators. I have spent much of my time working with large crocodiles, including salt water, Niel crocodiles, and almost any venomous snake you can think of. It was after spending several years always working with dead sharks brought to him from fisheries. The time in the (2000) when a young female great white got stuck in a salt lake off the shores of cape code. Greg describes how he felt the first time he saw the animals he had dedicated his life to being alive! In all its grace. This time often moves us, the overwhelming privileges and humility we feel to have this experience with the natural world. You are never the same after it; it typically lights an inextinguishable fire in us.
The book is chock-full of passion, enthusiasm and exhausting hard work. Greg describes mentoring and working with equally passionate students about our natural world and how much they sacrifice for science for our benefit. This book is a constant reminder that too many people in the natural sciences sacrifice so much for the betterment of the rest of civil society. Yet rarely do we ever hear of parents and teachers mentoring our youth to become a conservation officer or work for fisheries or other governmental bodies who monitor and study our natural environments so that we can enjoy them for future generations and also so we can, in some humane way exploring our natural resources sustainably as possible.
This book is for anyone passionate about sharks. If anyone is looking for direction or a model for working in wildlife and conservation, there are several stories of what students sacrifice to follow their dreams and how their mentors support them so we can learn more about the incredible great white.
This Books get a 5 out of from me.
Great read if you just want to know about a guy who dedicated his life to studying the Great white shark.!!!