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Appendix C
Websites That Provide Useful and Accurate
Information on Sharks
The websites listed below are more general than the sites listed in appendix
B, which are maintained primarily by professional scientific and conserva-
tion organizations.
A special note: Beware the Internet! There are dozens, maybe hundreds,
of shark websites. But the Web is often a merry-go-round and sometimes
a minefield for anyone looking for reliable information about sharks. The
vast majority of sites contain information taken from other websites, with
little or no effort given to verifying accuracy. We have often found a train
of sites containing similar information that turn out to be circular: Site A
gets info from Site B, which got it from C, which got it from A, and not
one of these sites says where the facts actually came from. Some sites are
essentially personal web pages or blogs, a sort of mysharksite.com, and oth-
ers appear to be little more than lures for advertising dollars. An example of
the latter is Ask.com (which is especially sloppy when it comes to providing
accurate information). The key to separating the wannabes from the help-
ful sites is whether they include the sources of their information. Listed
below are sites that we have found particularly useful.
Arkive.com. Good for photos and videos plus some biological information.
Australian Museum (http://australianmuseum.net.au). Very good species ac-
counts.
Elasmodiver.com. This site has a field guide to sharks and rays with many
good photos, plus an extensive, annotated list of coffee-table books,
shark biology books, field guides, individual species accounts, maga-
zines, etc., at http://www.elasmodiver.com/Shark books.htm.
Ichthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) (www
.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/sharks.htm). Everything sharky: invaluable
species accounts, conservation news, research summaries, and updated
information on shark attacks worldwide.
ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research (www.elasmo-research.org). See es-
pecially the “Biology of Sharks & Rays” online course and the wonder-
fully detailed list of “Recommended Shark Books.”
http://www.ebook3000.com
