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    Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks
    Unavailable
    Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks
    Unavailable
    Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks
    Audiobook11 hours

    Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks

    Written by Juliet Eilperin

    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A group of traders huddles around a pile of dried shark fins on a gleaming white floor in Hong Kong. A Papua New Guinean elder shoves off in his hand-carved canoe, ready to summon a shark with ancient magic. A scientist finds a rare shark in Indonesia and forges a deal with villagers so it and other species can survive.

    In this eye-opening adventure that spans the globe, Juliet Eilperin investigates the fascinating ways different individuals and cultures relate to the ocean's top predator. Along the way, she reminds us why, after millions of years, sharks remain among nature's most awe-inspiring creatures.

    From Belize to South Africa, from Shanghai to Bimini, we see that sharks are still the object of an obsession that may eventually lead to their extinction. This is why movie stars and professional athletes go shark hunting in Miami and why shark's fin soup remains a coveted status symbol in China. Yet we also see glimpses of how people and sharks can exist alongside one another: surfers tolerating their presence off Cape Town and ecotourists swimming with sharks that locals in the Yucatán no longer have to hunt.

    With a reporter's instinct for a good story and a scientist's curiosity, Eilperin offers us an up-close understanding of these extraordinary, mysterious creatures in the most entertaining and illuminating shark encounter you're likely to find outside a steel cage.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 14, 2011
    ISBN9780307967626
    Unavailable
    Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks

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    Reviews for Demon Fish

    3.5/5

    26 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Some of the chapters were great but some of them felt like they dragged on forever. I love sharks but I wish the book had been more consistent.
    • 4/5
      If sharks interest you, you'll want to read this book. Eilperin, a Washington Post reporter, provides the latest information about sharks. Unfortunately, her writing style is not very exciting, but the information makes it worth reading anyway. New developments that she describes include documented cases of virgin births in captive sharks, the increase in whale shark tourism, new research on shark repellents, and the shark fin soup industry. One of the strong points of the book is its international coverage, from Mexico to New Guinea, Belize, South Africa, and China. The main focus of Eilperin's book is the recent research into shark populations, documenting the drastic reduction in shark numbers worldwide. I'm one of those who doesn't feel that's necessarily a bad thing, but Eilperin makes a good case that it is very harmful to oceanic ecosystems, and thus to us all. Eilperin is pro-shark, and makes a persuasive case for the creature. I'm sure it is true, as she states, that many more people die from household accidents than from shark attacks. However, as I write this, one of the top stories in the UK press concerns the killing of a honeymooner in the Seychelles by a shark. That might have been good for the local ecosystem, but I'm sure his brand new widow is not comforted by Eilperin's statistics.
    • 3/5
      This is a book about what people think about sharks and what people do to (and with) sharks. It also has the feel of a layperson's travelogue into a variety of shark-related hotspots, seasoned with interview summaries and the occasional personal reflection. Juliet Eilperin abruptly shifts from discussing early mythological depictions of sharks, to the controversies of shark fin soup, ecotourism, food chain hierarchies, sport fishing, marine biology, and the legacy of Peter Benchley. The end result is a pretty decent little book about sharks; it's also a book that is extremely discursive and curiously low on passion. There are a lot of facts packed into the pages (although none that are so complex or complete that they disturb the lightness of the prose), as well as compelling anecdotes and a sense of peril that is de rigueur in modern environmental writing. Ultimately, this is a satisfying but often bloodless whirlwind tour of the relationship between people, sharks, and the biosphere that we all share.
    • 3/5
      This book examines how different cultural traditions and fads are helping to deplete shark stocks around the world. While it explores the impacts of increasing demand for shark-fin soup, sports fishing, commercial fishing and the psychological fear towards sharks that Jaws perpetuated, it also cleverly frames cultural traditions and pursuits as a way to change attitudes towards sharks and increase their value as part of eco-tourism ventures.
    • 4/5
      Sharks. Fish to be feared? Or, should we be exchanging our fear for awe? These ancient fish that have evolved for eons are now facing decimation, and in the case of certain species, humans are the ones doing the killing. As the author points out, sharks are hard to love. They aren’t soft and fuzzy and they’re saddled with all those teeth that look ready to take a leg off. How do you make that appealing? I found Demon Fish a very enjoyable read but I’m one of those people that believes sharks can be lovable or at the very least fascinating.Traveling to South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, and Belize, Eilperin meets with shark callers, scientists, shark evangelists, fisherman, environmentalists, restaurateurs selling shark fin soup, and even meets a few sharks up close. It’s all done in an attempt to understand what draws people to sharks with all their sharp teeth and fins. Frankly, in some instances, it’s cold hard cash but for others, it’s true admiration. Each though has a strange reverence for the fish even the ones that make their living off dead sharks.It’s full of facts: what it takes to track a shark, DNA studies, the cost of shark fins, and shark fishing. I found myself constantly amazed by the cash amounts assigned to certain parts of a shark’s anatomy. I also wanted to follow my husband around citing random shark facts at him. Considering my husband doesn’t share my love of sharks, he would have found this really annoying. I would have found it enlightening and fun.I’ve mentioned this before; I’m a huge fan of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. I actually wrote this while watching an episode on great whites so I guess it’s fitting that I’m posting it today. While this book focused on the economy of sharks --- their worth on the open market as well as their scientific and ecological worth --- I enjoyed it. I would have liked more information about specific species (Have you ever heard of a salmon shark or a goblin shark?) but that wasn’t the focus of the book, however, it was still a satisfying read. If you have an interest in sharks, this is a good addition to your library.