Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything I ever wanted to know...and much much more!, 26 Jun 1998
By A Customer
The Great White Shark is by far the best investment I have made to date. I picked up the book while working on a Co-op work term from school and could not put the book down. Every aspect of the oceans most respected predator is covered with many dynamic pictures and illustrations (done by Ellis). From learning about it's biology to investigating why we can't keep white pointers in captivity, this book is a must for anyone interested in reading about the king of the sea.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Detailed study of a complex creature., 7 Jul 2009
Stereotypically, the Shark is portrayed as the very epitome of evil in a manner never applied to terrestrial hunter-killers. None of the big cats or even-bigger bears (and the Polar Bear will actively hunt man!) are as feared as the Shark and none more so than the Great White. Part of the myth may be attributed to their being underwater and, therefore, largely unseen. Nevertheless, people do not go in search of Lions and Bears with raw meat and blood smeared over their clothes in order to attract them to the camera. So why people should react with horror and revulsion when the marine environment's apex predator responds - just as any other hungry creature would respond!, to such freely distributed blood and guts is beyond my understanding.
This book is just about as complete a study of a single species of fish as one might hope to find. Comparisons with other Sharks are included but only serve to complete the work. Before considering the content, however, I do have two criticisms. Richard Ellis is clearly a talented artist but the head-to-body dimensions of his painting of a Great White which appears on the cover are at odds with the dimensions shown in the many of the photographs used throughout the book. Not quite the equivalent of a ponies head on the body of a Shire horse but close.
My other criticism is that Ron and Valerie Taylor are mentioned on 22 pages of this book which would have been much improved had they been absent altogether. In one photograph, Valerie Taylor seeks to portray herself as the female equivalent of medallion man by leaning forward to show maximum cleavage and deliberately reveal the fact that she wears the tooth of a Great White around her neck. Wow! How hard is that! Her questionable antics of attracting sharks to her arm - over which is fitted a chain mail suit covered in bits of fish, blood and gore has done more to demonise the Shark than anything else apart from, perhaps, the film Jaws. As I have commented before, pity she never graduated to using a tin hat! For me, these antics place a large question mark over the Taylor's overall objectivity and one gets the feeling they would do just about anything to promote themselves and the Shark is simply a means to this end.
But, don't let this "below par" contribution spoil an otherwise good product. Simply ignore those pages on which the Taylors are mentioned and move on. It does not detract from an overall appreciation of the product.
The historic detail was particularly refreshing with material I had not previously seen. The section on close relatives and a comparison with the Megalodon were first rate and very instructive. The biology and morphology of the creature also combine to provide the reader with equal measures of educational and technical detail whilst retaining the book's overall readable quality. Shark attacks then takes up a whole 50 pages and, although those well-known and over-used, photos of Henri Bource and Rodney Fox make an obligatory reappearance, the remainder is both fascinating and informative. There then follows items about fishing, the Great White in captivity and comment about the film Jaws.
In a contradictory ending, we find the heading "Can we save the Great White Shark?" On that subject, I would have expected to find a Taylor-free zone but instead, this well-past-their-sell-by-date, shark-fighting, less-than-dynamic, diving duo from down under are there with the female half looking like Barbie Doll at eighty. A photograph on page 246 shows a young boy wearing a T-shirt. The caption reads "Andrew Guest wearing a "Save the Shark" t-shirt; a gift from Valerie Taylor." Bit late don't you think?
Overall, I was tempted to remove a second star for contradiction, but the fact remains this is a pretty good offering. All the technical, background information is here and for that I am grateful.
NM
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Detailed study of a complex creature., 7 Jul 2009
Stereotypically, the Shark is portrayed as the very epitome of evil in a manner never applied to terrestrial hunter-killers. None of the big cats or even-bigger bears (and the Polar Bear will actively hunt man!) are as feared as the Shark and none more so than the Great White. Part of the myth may be attributed to their being underwater and, therefore, largely unseen. Nevertheless, people do not go in search of Lions and Bears with raw meat and blood smeared over their clothes in order to attract them to the camera. So why people should react with horror and revulsion when the marine environment's apex predator responds - just as any other hungry creature would respond!, to such freely distributed blood and guts is beyond my understanding.
This book is just about as complete a study of a single species of fish as one might hope to find. Comparisons with other Sharks are included but only serve to complete the work. Before considering the content, however, I do have two criticisms. Richard Ellis is clearly a talented artist but the head-to-body dimensions of his painting of a Great White which appears on the cover are at odds with the dimensions shown in the many of the photographs used throughout the book. Not quite the equivalent of a ponies head on the body of a Shire horse but close.
My other criticism is that Ron and Valerie Taylor are mentioned on 22 pages of this book which would have been much improved had they been absent altogether. In one photograph, Valerie Taylor seeks to portray herself as the female equivalent of medallion man by leaning forward to show maximum cleavage and deliberately reveal the fact that she wears the tooth of a Great White around her neck. Wow! How hard is that! Her questionable antics of attracting sharks to her arm - over which is fitted a chain mail suit covered in bits of fish, blood and gore has done more to demonise the Shark than anything else apart from, perhaps, the film Jaws. As I have commented before, pity she never graduated to using a tin hat! For me, these antics place a large question mark over the Taylor's overall objectivity and one gets the feeling they would do just about anything to promote themselves and the Shark is simply a means to this end.
But, don't let this "below par" contribution spoil an otherwise good product. Simply ignore those pages on which the Taylors are mentioned and move on. It does not detract from an overall appreciation of the product.
The historic detail was particularly refreshing with material I had not previously seen. The section on close relatives and a comparison with the Megalodon were first rate and very instructive. The biology and morphology of the creature also combine to provide the reader with equal measures of educational and technical detail whilst retaining the book's overall readable quality. Shark attacks then takes up a whole 50 pages and, although those well-known and over-used, photos of Henri Bource and Rodney Fox make an obligatory reappearance, the remainder is both fascinating and informative. There then follows items about fishing, the Great White in captivity and comment about the film Jaws.
In a contradictory ending, we find the heading "Can we save the Great White Shark?" On that subject, I would have expected to find a Taylor-free zone but instead, this well-past-their-sell-by-date, shark-fighting, less-than-dynamic, diving duo from down under are there with the female half looking like Barbie Doll at eighty. A photograph on page 246 shows a young boy wearing a T-shirt. The caption reads "Andrew Guest wearing a "Save the Shark" t-shirt; a gift from Valerie Taylor." Bit late don't you think?
Overall, I was tempted to remove a second star for contradiction, but the fact remains this is a pretty good offering. All the technical, background information is here and for that I am grateful.
NM
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