Thomas B. Allen: Shark Attacks

By PETER JESSUP*

Reader reaction to this one will depend on prior knowledge of the subject. Know little or nothing and this is a useful and thorough compendium on what most of mankind regards as the most horrific form of death. Know a lot and it offers little more than repetition.

Thomas B. Allen is a writer for National Geographic and the book has the authority you'd expect, accuracy of research not in question among the tables, charts and graphs that plot the topic geographically, by time of day, depth of water, angle, area and success of attack, and species involved.

Ever since Peter Benchley's 1974 novel Jaws and the year-later movie and the pre-bite music it embedded in everyone's head, sharks have been flavour of the month.

"It's all psychological," the mayor of Benchley's fictional seaside resort town Amity, Long Island, told police chief Martin Brody when Brody wanted to put up shark warning signs. "Yell barracuda and everyone says 'Huh, what?' You yell shark and we've got a panic on our hands."

And therein lies the fascination: being hunted down and torn limb from limb by a prehistoric killing machine while in an unfamiliar environment where escape is nigh-on impossible.

Benchley's book was loosely based around events around Matawan Creek and beaches near New York in 1916, when three men and two boys were attacked in separate incidents, sparking a huge shark-hunt.

Allen's book starts there and records as many attack details as possible from then on, with the help of the International Shark Attack File held at the Florida University of Natural History.

Records really began following the sinking of the cruiser Indianapolis in mid-Pacific in 1945 as she returned to the United States after delivering components for the first atom bombs to the Marshall Islands.

That episode is gruesomely recounted, with hundreds of the crew taken by sharks in pack-attacks as survivors floated for three days, the secrecy of the mission meaning no regular contact with the ship and no quick rescue.

The book winds up with chapters on "looking for trouble" and "if it happens ... " offering useful tips for watersports enthusiasts.

Short statistical survey: surfers are the most likely victims and most likely to be so severely attacked they'll die; most likely attack zones are in beach gutters, near channels or big drop-offs, and around rocks where seals and other pinniped are found.

Constable and Robinson

$67.95

* Peter Jessup is a Herald sports journalist.