Daniel C. Abel - Shark Biology and Conservation: Essentials for Educators, Students, and Enthusiasts

Shark Biology and Conservation

Biology and Conservation

Essentials for Educators, Students, and Enthusiasts

Daniel C. Abel

R. Dean Grubbs

With contributions from Tristan Guttridge

Illustrated by Elise Pullen and Marc Dando

2020 Johns Hopkins University Press

All rights reserved. Published 2020

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper

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Johns Hopkins University Press

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Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Abel, Daniel C., author. | Grubbs, R. Dean, author. | Guttridge, Tristan, author.

Title: Shark biology and conservation : essentials for educators, students, and enthusiasts / Daniel C. Abel, R. Dean Grubbs, with contributions from Tristan Guttridge ; illustrated by Elise Pullen and Marc Dando.

Description: Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019045796 | ISBN 9781421438375 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781421438375 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Sharks. | SharksConservation.

Classification: LCC QL638.9 .A245 2020 | DDC 597.3/4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045796

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible.

This is not a coffee table book, but if you leave it in plain view we suspect people will thumb through it to take a closer look at our cool photographs and artwork. Nor is it a field guide, but in a pinch it can help you identify more common species, or narrow your choices. And this book is neither a textbook nor a scholarly volume, though you would be excused for concluding the opposite due to the breadth of coverage, scientific citations, and terminology not typically found in coffee table books and field guides.

So exactly what kind of book is this? As the title denotes, we wrote Shark Biology and Conservation: Essentials for Educators, Students, and Enthusiasts for those in need of or curious about accurate information on sharks presented in what we hope is an accessible but not watered-down format. In doing so we do not disparage coffee table books, field guides, or scholarly tomesa glimpse of our bookcases would reveal shelves of these. But no books in these categories have it both ways; that is, be popular and scholarly at the same time. So, that is in part our goal and challenge.

One of the reasons we wrote this book is an attempt to supplant fear of sharks (known as galeophobia and selachophobia) with respect, and myth with knowledge. We hope to do so by providing a comprehensive overview of sharks, including recent scientific advances that will feed your fascination, calm any fears you might harbor, and explain why sharks are critical to ocean health. We will also broaden the discussion to include the rays, or batoids, an overlooked group closely related to sharks, which are equally fascinating and, in a few cases, are far more endangered than the vast majority of sharks.

The idea for this book arose during Coastal Carolina Universitys Biology of Sharks course, a three-week class held in part on wondrous Winyah Bay and at the extraordinary Bimini Biological Field Station. The class has been offered annually since 1996, making it perhaps the longest running shark biology course globally.

The main drawback to the course was the lack of a suitable textbook. To be sure, there are a number of exceptional books on sharks and their relatives. However, most shark-related nonfiction books for nonspecialists are field guides, coffee table books, personal narratives, natural histories, stories of shark attacks, and so on, written mainly for a general audience.

Highly specialized books on sharks are more technical and their content and writing are more accessible to graduate students and specialists than to other students. These provide an exhaustive survey and synthesis of facts and concepts and contain complex graphs and diagrams. Both of us, along with others in the shark research community, use these texts regularly, but generally not as textbooks for our undergraduate courses. Indeed, without this assemblage of more technical books, this book would not have been possible.

We highly recommend these outstanding books but, as great and thorough as they are, they did not hit the sweet spot we were seeking.

Moreover, as we contemplated writing the book for students in our shark biology course, we realized that the shark booklist had largely overlooked a surprisingly expansive market: educators, students, advanced enthusiasts, field biologists, naturalists, and marine biologists who might not have a background in fish biology or sharks. What the market is missing for this group is a comprehensive, systematic overview of the diversity, evolution, ecology, behavior, physiology, anatomy, and conservation of sharks and their relatives written in a style that is sufficiently detailed but not too technical or intimidating.

The field of shark biology has blossomed in the last several decades. The American Elasmobranch Society, the professional organization for biologists and fishery scientists specializing in sharks, skates, and rays, boasts an estimated membership of around 400 and holds well-attended national meetings. Similar societies exist both regionally and globally.

Courses in shark biology have appeared on numerous college campuses. There is even a shark MOOC (massive open online course) called Sharks! Global Biodiversity, Biology, and Conservation. These all have coincided with renewed public interest in this group of organisms, whose populations in some cases are threatened by a number of human impacts and with whom there is an enormous depth of fascination.

This book draws on our combined 65+ years of experience as shark biologists and educators, as well as our extensive connections to the close-knit shark biology community (and the generous and enthusiastic contributions from many of them). We hope you have fun reading this book. Even more, we would deem our time writing it worthwhile if you use this book to expand your knowledge of these wondrous beasts and make it a springboard to educate others, stoke your enthusiasm and passion, and work so that there is always a place for sharks, and all of their relatives (including humans).

One final word about the material covered by this book. To keep the book affordable, the length of this book, including the number of illustrations, was limited. To meet this limit, we made tough choices and shortened some topics and excluded others. We hope we did this skillfully, but if you think that we omitted or devoted insufficient space to key concepts, now you know why.

1. Hamlett, W. C. (ed.). 1999. Sharks, Skates, and Rays: The Biology of Elasmobranch Fishes. Johns Hopkins U. Press.

2. Carrier, J. C., Musick, J.A., and Heithaus, M.R. (eds.). 2012. Biology of Sharks and Their Relatives. CRC Press.

3. Klimley, A. P. 2013.