[cabbage]

Can anyone help me track down a book I read many (many!) years ago. I think it was called simply "Shark!" and it was a collection of anecdotes, fictional stories and true life accounts about sharks. I believe it was published soon after Jaws 2 came out in the late 70's. I had a very battered paperback copy which I bought in a second hand bookshop when I was about 10. My google-fu has utterly failed me in trying to track it down however! It heavily featured the Australian couple Ron and Valerie Taylor (possibly they edited it?) and Rodney Fox, a Great White shark-attack survivor.

The book was interesting as it appeared to be a group of writers who were undergoing a collective epiphany about sharks, moving from an attitude of "the only good shark is a dead shark" towards one of conservation. One author in particular wrote of how he had conducted a one man crusade to rid his local waters of 'man eating' Nurse sharks, killing hundreds. Only slowly did he come to the conclusion that these sharks were harmless and he bitterly regretted his actions. Also included were historical accounts of early sailors coming across sharks in days when it was apparently firmly believed by Europeans that no shark would ever attack a human being! Talk about a turn around in views!

Some of the most memorable accounts were from Ron and Valerie Taylor telling of the filming of the live action shark sequences for Jaws and Jaws 2. For Jaws 2 the script called for the shark to have a scar on its nose, so Ron and Valerie were forced to lean over the side with a marker pen drawing fake scars on the snouts of the sharks feeding from bait lines attached to the boat Another tells of a cameraman falling into the water whilst trying to step from one boat to another at night in the pitch black whilst both boats were surrounded by feeding Great Whites.

I got the impression that Ron and Valerie were beginning to regret their involvement with Jaws and I wonder what they think today. Don't get me wrong I think Jaws is one of the greatest movies ever made - but I'm someone who will never again swim in the ocean due to the irrational fears that film sparked! Would Jaws have been a film best never made?

[Sandra]

The book you're referring to sound very similar to "Great Shark Stories" by Ron and Valerie Taylor which I have at home.

It's a collection of stories about sharks. There's one called "The Shark That Could Ring Bells" and there's a chapter from "Jaws" included.

The Taylor's involvement in filming for "Jaws" is covered. There's an anecdote about how a Great White became entangled in the cage cables and would have died but for them bringing it to the shallows and Ron Taylor cutting it loose. The person who later fell overboard at night was Ron Taylor. Valerie wrote how she was below deck when she heard someone shout "Ron's in the water!". She said that, as they got him back on board, a Great White appeared behind him but didn't attack. Instead it just looked at him for a second or two then swam away and she likes to think that it was the shark that he helped just returning the compliment.

There's also a book called "Shark! True Stories and Lessons From the Deep." by Peter Benchley. I've not read that one but it's possible that it could be the one that you're thinking of.

Both are available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Shark-Sto ... 494&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shark-True-Stor ... 94&sr=1-10

I hope that helps!

[cabbage]

The book you're referring to sound very similar to "Great Shark Stories" by Ron and Valerie Taylor which I have at home.

It's a collection of stories about sharks. There's one called "The Shark That Could Ring Bells" and there's a chapter from "Jaws" included.

The Taylor's involvement in filming for "Jaws" is covered. There's an anecdote about how a Great White became entangled in the cage cables and would have died but for them bringing it to the shallows and Ron Taylor cutting it loose. The person who later fell overboard at night was Ron Taylor. Valerie wrote how she was below deck when she heard someone shout "Ron's in the water!". She said that, as they got him back on board, a Great White appeared behind him but didn't attack. Instead it just looked at him for a second or two then swam away and she likes to think that it was the shark that he helped just returning the compliment.

There's also a book called "Shark! True Stories and Lessons From the Deep." by Peter Benchley. I've not read that one but it's possible that it could be the one that you're thinking of.

Both are available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Shark-Sto ... 494&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shark-True-Stor ... 94&sr=1-10

I hope that helps!

Your google-fu is strong, I am defeated.

That just makes me look really lazy I promise Amazon was the first place I looked! somehow I must have missed it.

The great shark stories sounds like it, I remember the story about the (lemon?) sharks that rang bells too. I think it might have been an older edition I had though.
I also seem to have misremembered quite a lot of the detail - but it was about 20 years ago I read it! A friend of a friend was working as a shark wrangler on some sort of great white dive boat over the summer which is what made me think of it again.

I might see if I can pick up a copy off Amazon though I have to say that that book and Jaws are the reason I don't like even wading through rivers

What do you think about it? Is it readable or is my childhood memory romanticising it a bit?

Thanks for the help!

[Sandra]

The fact that it's a collection of stories makes it very readable.

Most people have never seen a shark (the best I've ever managed to clap eyes on was a little Tope - I've never even seen any of the Basking Sharks that Irish waters are positively teeming with) and they either think that sharks stalk the seas looking for people to mangle or they claim to be terrified of them. This book documents the authors' personal interactions with different species of sharks and so helps to dispel all the silly urban myths.

It was the first shark book that I gave my son to read. He'd just watched "Jaws" and, being suitably impressed as only young boys can be, he wanted to find out more. He was obviously wanting to read about blood and guts and he was initially disappointed with the book. I directed him to the chapter about the filming of "Jaws" and he went from there.

By the way, I'm sure that you did look at Amazon first but it wouldn't have been that much help to you if you didn't know the title of the book that you were looking for. I've half a mind to treat myself to the Peter Benchley one that I mentioned.

[cabbage]

I'm in two minds, it'd be nice to relive some of my childhood memories of the book but the more I remember about it I think it'd probably give me nightmares
That "sharks that ring bells" story was fascinating and really interesting in the insight it gave into shark intelligence but the main thing I remember about it is a side part about someone trespassing into the centre one night and ignorantly sitting with their feet dangling in a murky pool which unbeknownst to them contained a Sand Tiger shark...

I'm one of those people that are utterly terrified of sharks while being fascinated at the same time. I know its completely irrational and that i'm more likely to be slaughtered by a falling coconut or a bee sting but its just one of those fears thats got into me at an early age and stuck! I'm the same with needles

I've also never seen a shark outside of an aquarium, spent some time looking for Basking Sharks while on Skye this year but didn't manage one - it was always "oh you just missed it, there was one here this morning!"

[Sandra]

The Tope I saw wasn't in an aquarium. It was at Red Strand in Co. Cork and we saw another at Inch Strand in Kerry a few years later. We were bodyboarding at the time. They were only small things, about three feet long, but even though you know you're safe they're still a bit unnerving.

If I ever strike it rich on the lotto (or land a sugar daddy with a terminal condition ) I will go to Australia and go on one of Rodney Fox's expeditions and go and see some Great Whites. They cost a few thousand to go on but, when you consider that on one recent expedition 15 different Great Whites were seen, it would be well worth it.