Chasing Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark

“At last: the story of tracking the ocean’s most charismatic and controversial predator, compellingly told by the man who has learned more about the Atlantic great white shark than any other person alive. You must not miss this fantastic book!” —Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus

Dr. Greg Skomal, one of the leading great white shark experts in the country, reveals the true nature of these mysterious apex predators, as well as the fascinating story behind their history and startling resurgence.

With its quaint villages, local restaurants serving up lobster rolls, and miles and miles of warm, sandy beaches, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is famous for being America’s carefree seaside getaway. But in August 2012, the first confirmed white shark attack in almost eighty years occurred in the region. As shark sightings quickly began to increase on Cape Cod and elsewhere, and large beachside billboards warning about the growing shark population became a common sight, a boogie boarder died after being attacked by a great white shark in Cape Cod’s shallow waters. What had changed to cause news of human-shark interactions to go from being a rarity to being the new normal? As some citizens called for shark culls, nets, drone surveillance, and other extreme solu­tions, interactions between local residents and scientists, politicians, and those responsible for public safety became tense and frantic.

Dr. Greg Skomal, a shark biologist whose lifelong passion has been to gain a more refined understanding of the great white shark, was at the center of it all. This riveting book of marine biology is the story of this apex predator’s return to the east­ern seaboard, told through the life of the scientist who found himself in the oftentimes thankless position of having to balance conservation efforts and the drive to do important science with panic and fear in the court of public opinion. Greg has spent decades on a quest to tag, track, and demystify this animal, using every high- and low-tech method at his disposal, and he frequently comes face-to-face with these shadows of the deep. He leaves no stone unturned in his pursuit of the secrets behind the largely unknown lives of these charismatic creatures and in his duty to solve the intricate puzzle of how humans can coexist alongside them. Chasing Shadows is a too-rare conservation success story about restoring a top predator to an ecosystem that provides a profound, new understanding of a beast so notoriously fierce that it’s nearly impossible to imagine how vulnerable this species of ocean life truly is.

This landmark work of natural history reveals:

• Firsthand Scientific Account: Follow Dr. Greg Skomal into the field as he tags, tracks, and comes face-to-face with the ocean’s most misunderstood predator.
• Groundbreaking Shark Research: Learn about the innovative high- and low-tech methods―some invented by Skomal himself―used to demystify the lives of these charismatic creatures.
• A Cape Cod Story: Witness the startling resurgence of great whites along the eastern seaboard and the tense, frantic struggle to balance conservation with public safety.
• Human-Wildlife Coexistence: Go beyond the headlines to solve the intricate puzzle of how we can live alongside these vulnerable animals in a changing ecosystem.

Dr. Greg Skomal—in addition to being an accomplished marine biologist, underwater explorer, photographer, and author—is a leading white shark expert in the Atlantic. He is a senior fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and currently directs the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Intercampus Marine Science graduate program; an adjunct scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts; and a member of the Explorers Club and the Boston Sea Rovers. Greg has authored dozens of scientific research papers and has appeared in a number of film and television documentaries, including programs for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, PBS, and numerous television networks. He is a regular on Shark Week and Shark Fest and is the author of The Shark Handbook. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and a PhD from Boston University. He lives with his family in Marion, Massachusetts.

Ret Talbot is an award-winning freelance journalist who covers ocean issues at the intersection of science and sustainability. His work can be found in publications such as National Geographic, Discover, Mongabay, Yale Environment 360, and other venues. As a science writer, he has embedded with marine scientists around the world, including places like Papua New Guinea, Sulawesi, and Belize, and he frequently works closely with scientists to bring compelling stories about science to a general audience. He lives on the coast of Maine with his wife, Karen Talbot, who provided the illustrations for this book.