Demon Fish

April 15, 2011

Washington Post environmental reporter Eilperin (Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives, 2006) travels the globe to explore the complex relationship between sharks and humans, issuing a passionate call for the protection of these diverse and majestic creatures.

Sharks inspire fear, writes the author, but as many people know, it's largely groundless: "you are more likely to die from lightning, a bee sting, or an elephant's attack than from a shark's bite." Yet this fear, along with commercial pressures, is driving some species to extinction. Before we feared them, sharks played important religious roles in societies from the Mayan empire to communities in the Niger Delta region. Eilperin witnessed the modern-day practice of "shark calling," in which Papua New Guineans perform religious rituals and then catch sharks using lures and snares. (The practice is not wholly symbolic, as the meat is eaten and the fins sold.) Shark's fin soup is an important symbol of wealth in China; however, after eating it, Eilperin calls it "one of the greatest scams of all time, an emblem of status whose most essential ingredient adds nothing of material value to the end product." Nonetheless, shark populations are collapsing in part due to the commercial value of fins. Unfortunately, the author provides little clarity about which human activities (such as sport fishing and finning) have the most significant impacts on shark populations. Moreover, the book treats sharks as too monolithic, doing little to explain which particular species face the gravest threats. But Eilperin is convincing in her argument that many species will go extinct if current practices continue. She is optimistic about certain alternatives, like the shark-watching expeditions she saw in a Mexican village, where former fisherman now make their living guiding eco-tourists. With alternatives like this and the possibility of international agreements, Eilperin concludes that all hope is not lost for the shark.

A general but solid primer on the state of sharks today and a plea for their protection.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011

Humans kill 73 million sharks to supply fins for soup and have depleted populations worldwide and disrupted ecosystem balance in various ocean environments. Eilperin, an environmental reporter for the Washington Post and a scuba diver, describes her travels throughout Asia, South Africa, and the United States in search of shark information and folklore. She tasted shark soup in China and found it bland. There is also illegal trade in sharks in demand by aquariums in casinos and resorts. The author provides a well-written overview of current and past attitudes toward sharks and discusses shark species, physiology, genetics, reproduction, evolution, navigation, and attacks on swimmers. Because sharks swim so fast and are hard to spot underwater, tracking them for scientific purposes is difficult and costly. VERDICT Eilperin's adventures will entertain general readers and high school and college students. For systematic treatment of shark behavior, size, and distribution of the various species, consider such works as Thomas B. Allen's The Shark Almanac or Doug Perrine's well-illustrated Sharks and Rays of the World.--Judith B. Barnett, Univ. of Rhode Island Lib., Kingston

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2011
Sharks are dangerous, but so are we. According to Washington Post environmental reporter Eilperin, these ancient fish have more to fear, for while few people ever die from shark attacks, entire species of sharks are dying because of trophy hunting, industrial fishing, habitat destruction, and the lucrative international trade in shark fins. The latter is especially destructive, as hundreds of thousands of mutilated shark carcasses are dumped in the sea each year by fishermen harvesting fins for Asian banquets, at which serving shark fin is a symbol of status, despite being tasteless and tough. In this wide-ranging natural history of shark-human relations, the author recounts frank interviews with an entertaining cast of scientists, fishermen, wholesalers, chefs, and eco-tour operators, all of whom have a stake in the survival of the oceans top predators. She also gets into the water with the sharks. For readers who like passionate investigative reporting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)