xiv Introduction
cal fish names and a second on the biology of and attacks by Blacktip Reef
Sharks in the journal Pacific Science. I was now a bona fide shark researcher!
What followed was a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii
on land crabs and a Ph.D. from Cornell University on the behavior and
ecology of lake fishes. Sharks had to be put on hold as other opportunities
and interests developed. I was then hired at the University of Georgia in
Athens, Georgia, as an ichthyologist, where I taught ichthyology, animal
behavior, and conservation biology for 30 years. Although I studied marine
and freshwater fishes, mostly by diving and observing predator-prey inter-
actions, I always managed to get in as much shark biology and conservation
as I could into my classes.
In essence, this book is really a boyhood dream come true. I can hon-
estly say that I’ve fantasized about writing a book about sharks for as long
as I can remember. In the meantime, I’ve published more than 50 research
papers on various fishy topics, numerous book chapters, an ichthyology
textbook (The Diversity of Fishes: Biology, Evolution, and Ecology, published by
Wiley-Blackwell, with three co-authors), and a fish conservation book (Fish
Conservation: A Guide to Understanding and Restoring Global Aquatic Biodiver-
sity and Fishery Resources, published by Island Press), as well as co-authored
with Bruce Collette of the Smithsonian Institution another book (Fishes:
The Animal Answer Guide) in the same Johns Hopkins University Press se-
ries as this book. But really, all along, I wanted to write a book about sharks
and was delighted when the Press invited me to do so, with George Bur-
gess as my co-author.From George Burgess
Like Gene, I have had a lifelong interest in sharks. The son of a career Air
Force parent, I moved around a lot as a kid, as my father and our family
were transferred about every three to four years. Luckily for me, those as-
signments were always at coastal locations, sequentially landing us in Ha-
waii, Virginia, Italy, and New Hampshire before we settled in on Long
Island, New York. My father’s love of the sea, coming from the angle of
boats, seamanship, and swimming, opened the door for me to get hooked
on its biota. We always had a family boat, and weekends and summer vaca-
tion activities frequently involved time at sea or on the beach.
I suffered mightily from asthma in my youth, at a time when medical
treatment for the condition was all but lacking (and my parents smoked
until I was 10 years old, a killer for asthmatic kids). Because breathing was
a difficult task, I was especially reluctant to stick my head in the water. But
while we were living in Naples, Italy, in 1957, skin diving, usually involving
spearfishing, had become a developing pastime for younger guys. Noting
my great interest in the writhing and dead critters being delivered to shorehttp://www.ebook3000.com