With Shark Awareness Day coming up on the 14th of July, David A. Ebert, shark expert and co-author of A Pocket Guide to the Sharks of the World, weighs in on the ocean’s most elusive, dangerous and fascinating predator.
“THE PUBLIC’S PERCEPTION OF SHARKS often conjures up images of a large, fearsome, toothy predator, with its large dorsal fin cutting its way through the waters’ surface. However, the reality is that sharks come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, and can be informative of the health of the marine environment.
Although some sharks can get large – including the largest fish in the world, the Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus), which at nearly 20 m in length, grows larger than a full-size school bus – over 80 percent of sharks are less than 1.8 m long, with about 50 percent being less than 1 m long. There are even some ‘Dwarf’ sharks (species in the genera Eridacnis, Etmopterus, Squaliolus) that grow no longer than the palm of your hand. Can you imagine holding a fully-grown shark in the palm of your hand?
“Who has heard of a pink shark with blue fins?”
Most people assume sharks to be nearly uniformly grayish in colour, but who has heard of a pink shark with blue fins? Some species come in a brilliantly variegated pattern of bright orange and yellow spots and bands! These are just some of the variety of species you will find in my new book, A Pocket Guide to the Sharks of the World.
A Pocket Guide to the Sharks of the World is lavishly illustrated with beautiful new drawings and illustrations throughout. This is the essential illustrated guide for anyone interested in these fascinating fish. The number of shark species has increased over the past 15 years with over 20 percent of all known species having been described.
In fact, the new Pocket Guide to the Sharks of the World has about 50 species that have been added since the previous edition, bringing the total number of sharks to 536. It’s an essential one-stop guide for anyone interested in learning about and identifying all of the known sharks of the world, and for anyone with a keen interest in this enigmatic fish group.”
For more on Dave, visit lostsharkguy.com
A Pocket Guide to the Sharks of the World will be available August 2021.
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