Animals - General, Marine & Aquatic Life, Nature, Aquatic Life & Sciences

Shark Trouble

Name: Shark Trouble
Author: Peter Benchley
ISBN: 9780736687102

by Peter Benchley

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Overview

Master storyteller Peter Benchley combines high adventure with practical information in Shark Trouble, a book that is at once a thriller and a valuable guide to being safe in, on, under, and around the sea. The bestselling author of Jaws, The Deep, and other works draws on more than three decades of experience to share information about sharks and other marine animals.

“Shark attacks on human beings generate a tremendous amount of media coverage,” Benchley writes, “partly because they occur so rarely, but mostly, I think, because people are, and always have been, simultaneously intrigued and terrified by sharks. Sharks come from a wing of the dark castle where our nightmares live—deep water beyond our sight and understanding—and so they stimulate our fears and fantasies and imaginations.”

Benchley describes the many types of sharks (including the ones that pose a genuine threat to man), what is and isn’t known about shark behavior, the odds against an attack and how to reduce them even further—all reinforced with the lessons he has learned, the mistakes he has made, and the personal perils he has encountered while producing television documentaries, bestselling novels, and articles about the sea and its inhabitants. He tells how to swim safely in the ocean, how to read the tides and currents, what behavior to avoid, and how to survive when danger suddenly strikes. He discusses how to tell children about sharks and the sea and how to develop, in young and old alike, a healthy respect for the ocean.

As Benchley says, “The ocean is the only alien and potentially hostile environment on the planet intowhich we tend to venture without thinking about the animals that live there, how they behave, how they support themselves, and how they perceive us. I know of no one who would set off into the jungles of Malaysia armed only with a bathing suit, a tube of suntan cream, and a book, and yet that’s precisely how we approach the oceans.”

No longer. Not after you’ve read Shark Trouble.

About the Author, Peter Benchley

After graduating from Harvard, Peter Benchley worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, then as an editor at Newsweek and a speechwriter in the White House. His novel Jaws was published in 1974, followed by The Deep, The Island, The Girl of the Sea of Cortez, Q Clearance, Rummies, and Beast, among others. He has written screenplays for three of his novels, and his articles and essays have appeared in such publications as National Geographic and The New York Times. He has written, narrated, and appeared in dozens of television documentaries. He is a member of the national council of Environmental Defense and is a spokesman for its Oceans Program.

Biography

With the 1974 publication of Jaws, the story of a man-, woman-, and child-eating shark that terrorizes a seaside community, Peter Benchley left an indelible imprint on the collective American psyche. Who would ever want to go into the water again?

But there's little the reading public likes better than a good scare (remember Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby? Or how about Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs?), and with Jaws, his first novel, Benchley got all the elements just right: There was a predator; there was plenty of suspense; and, oh yes, plenty of gore, too. The book, a perfect summer beach read, was wildly successful and spent 40 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Benchley admitted that the book had little basis in scientific fact (at the time, almost nobody had any firsthand experience with great whites), but as a former newspaper reporter, he had impeccable instincts for a good yarn. He followed Jaws with two more terrifying deep-sea adventure novels, The Deep and The Island.

In 1982, Benchley published The Girl of the Sea of Cortez, a lovely, idyllic, and notably scare-free novel that received mixed reviews. "This reader yearned for more conflict," wrote a critic for the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "more 'and then what happened?' After a few more forays into traditional fiction, the author returned to his forté in bestselling thrillers like Beast, White Shark, and Creature.

Aware in his later years of the fragility of the species, Benchley became a staunch defender of the great white shark, penning several works of nonfiction about these endangered predators and actively advocating for ocean conservation. He died on Feburary 11, 2006, from pulmonary fibrosis, but his legacy continues with the Peter Benchley Shark Conservation Award, given annually for outstanding contributions to shark conservation.

Good To Know

Benchley was a speechwriter for Lyndon Johnson during the first two years of his administration (1967-69).

In 1999, Benchley turned his attention to writing and developing a short-lived syndicated series about plane crash survivors in the jungle, Amazon, starring Carol Alt and C. Thomas Howell.

Benchley's novels have inspired several movies and teleplays, and the author had a hand in some of them -- sometimes as an actor. He was a TV interviewer in Jaws, played bit parts in other films, and appeared onscreen as an interviewee in E!'s True Hollywood Story about the making of Jaws.

Benchley was the grandson of Robert Benchley, the famous humorist and member of the Algonquin Round Table.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

That's right: Jaws author Peter Benchley has written a nonfiction book about sharks! Apprehensive that not even his terrifying novel has convinced us to be safe in the water, Benchley splices together real-life shark attack stories and practical advice about how to stay safe in the surf. Not neglecting other sea monsters, Benchley explains how to avoid encounters and how to handle them if they do occur.

Library Journal

Last summer, the media fueled a shark attack scare when in fact the number of incidents was below average. This year seems primed to be the "Summer of the Shark Book," in which authors interested in the predatory fish capitalize on last summer's hype just in time for this summer's beach crowd. Shark is an anthology of excerpts from previously published books and articles, including Peter Benchley's Jaws, Eugenie Clark's Lady with a Spear, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and Jean-Michel Cousteau's Cousteau's Great White Shark. The only apparent common thread is that the selections feature people being attacked by sharks or sharks being attacked by people. The fact that this is part of the "Adrenaline Book" series is a good clue as to the nature of this volume. Benchley's Shark Trouble is intended more as an argument against the hype than more fuel for it. The author's introduction emphasizes how much has been learned since he wrote Jaws in 1974 and that sharks, including the most fearsome ones, are in much more danger from humans than humans from sharks. A chapter called "The Summer of Hype" sets the record straight on last year's media hysteria. Other chapters discuss the real dangers of swimming in the ocean (e.g., tides, rips, and other currents) and how to avoid getting caught. Some personal shark anecdotes add excitement as well. Benchley's solid and informative book is recommended for public and school libraries, especially where there is an interest in the ocean and scuba diving. Shark is not recommended; libraries would do better to purchase the publications that it highlights, plus a few other classic shark books, such as Thomas H. Lineaweaver's The Natural History of the Shark. [John A. Musick and Beverly McMillan's The Shark Chronicles: A Scientist Tracks the Consummate Predator is coming in September from Holt. Ed.] Margaret A. Rioux, MBL/WHOI Lib., Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., MA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

From Benchley (White Shark), a compendium of shark facts, tales, and personal encounters that feels as insightful and trustworthy as anything ever uttered in Jaws. Benchley has done as much as anyone to give sharks a dose of menace, so it's only fitting that he should put together this account in hopes of shedding light on shark behavior while also giving suggestions about how to minimize chances of trouble—or, if desired, maximize chances of seeing. Benchley explains that every time you enter the ocean, you are entering shark territory and may be regarded as fair game—though, in fact, sharks are happier shredding a seal or sea lion, whose return on energy expended in attacking and eating are much greater (humans are too bony and protein deficient). The author catalogues sensible do's and don'ts—don't swim near seal and sea lion colonies; don't swim at dawn, dusk, or night, when sharks move into the shallows; don't swim alone or in turbid water; don't wear shiny jewelry or make erratic movements. Many of Benchley's personal stories are drawn from scuba dives, and there's plenty of advice about how to dive safely—being good, for example, at recognizing territorial displays. Curios-sharks with the face of a pig, others that can fit in the palm of your hand-make these creatures appear as strange and vulnerable as the rest of us, while at the same time (would it be Benchley otherwise?) scary creatures abound, from sea wasps and sea snakes, marauding groupers and bluefish, on to man-eating sharks: great eating-machines, more ferocious than any Bengal tiger. Consider the dazzling speed of the mako: "a gray ghost in the distance one second, right in front of you the next, gone the next, back again the next." If you're looking for an antidote to being spooked by Jaws, there's information here to provide it. But there's just as much to spook you anew.