The Devil's Teeth.

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Ok, I know that one should never review a book until they have completed reading said book. But the thing is, I want to share with you all the sheer awesomeness of this incredible book before I finish it...

Here is what prompted me to buy The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks in the first place ... the back cover:

"Since Jaws scared a nation of moviegoers out of the water three decades ago, great white sharks have attained a mythic status as the most frightening and mysterious monsters to still live among us. Each fall, just twenty-seven miles off the San Francisco coast, in the waters surrounding a desolate rocky island chain, the world's largest congregation of these fearsome predators gather to feed.

Journalist Susan Casey first saw the great whites of the Farrallones in a television documentary. Within months, she was sitting with two shark scientists in a small motorboat as the sharks - some as long as twenty feet, as wide as a semitrailer circled around them. From this first encounter, Casey became obsessed with these awe-inspiring creatures, and a plan was hatched for her to join the scientists and follow their research. The Devil's Teeth is the riveting account of that one fateful shark season."

I bought The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks quite a while ago ... and simply never got around to reading it. But a night of boredom had prompted me to pick it up. I know it would be clever to now say "and I couldn't put it down" but the truth is that I put it down over and over again ... sometimes after reading only a paragraph. I am so riveted and curious about much of the information Susan Casey presents here ... the specific sharks of the Farrallone Islands ... the salt-of-the-earth real life human characters who study them ... the history of our relationship to Great Whites (or Whites, as scientists call them) ... that I find that I want to see/hear/watch more about many of the details she presents here. So I drop the book, grab my IPad, and google all that I want more knowledge of ... then pick the book back up when I feel satisfied to go on to the next curious/amazing bits of information.

It's not that Casey does not do an amazing job of sharing every possible aspect of the Whites, the islands, the scientists, her journey, etc. She does. And if I had to find fault with the book (which I can't) I would say that she gives the reader so much to think about ... and to be further curious about ... that I am having a hard time getting through the book. I think the sub-title word "Obsession" is well chosen. She truly becomes obsessed with sharks throughout her adventure into their world. And as someone who is also a bit obsessed by these predators (see here and here) ... I can totally appreciate the way she delves into every aspect of the shark world ...

For example ... we know that Great Whites are BIG. And we have heard that they can grow to 20-feet long ... but have you ever stopped to think about how BIG that really is? Well, here is some perspective ... these predators can be 8-feet WIDE and 6-feet DEEP. Try to imagine that! Try to imagine hanging out on a small motorboat while being literally surrounded by these giants of the sea. You likely can't. Casey can. And she tells of the awe she felt by their presence without being overly sentimental. And you feel like you are there with her ... without the danger and the Dramamine.

And what of Great Whites in captivity? Never heard of it? That is because it is nearly impossible to keep these apex predators confined to any sort of aquarium ... no matter how big or well designed. We simply don't know enough about their needs and/or they eat all their tank mates. Casey's research on this particular subject is thorough and riveting ... and prompted me to google everything I could find on the subject. Here are some links you may find interesting:

* List of all Great Whites ever kept in captivity and the outcome of each trial.

* The Today Show report on the only Great White in captivity ... and its subsequent release back into the wild.

Then there is this great tale of the one remaining sea urchin diver of the Farrallone Islands, Ron Elliot. Why is he the one and only? Well, I will let Casey tell you the fateful history of others who have tried their hand at making a fortune of the rich ocean floor in theses shark infested waters, But Ron? He knows these sharks ... and knows just how to handle them. See this short 10 min documentary of this work. I wish I had his courage ... so I could see the world the way he sees it ... from the depths of the ocean.

And the islands themselves? Again, Casey tells of them in such detail ... their history ... the conflicts over ownership ... the families who have tried to live year-round on these nearly uninhabitable spaces ... the fear that Native Americans had of them ... that I want to learn more.

* Article about a lighthouse keeping family on the Farrallones ... and their return visit to the island about 55 years after they left for the mainland.

* Information on the not-so-well-known Farrallone Island Egg War - yes, Egg War - can be found on this blog dedicated to the subject.

So --- you see, I am only part way through this book and yet find myself stopping every few pages to look further into some new interesting stories/people/histories/ individual sharks (when Peter Pyle refers to the shark Stumpy as a "goddess", I spent a good half hour searching for her pic online). This book is wonderfully written, intense, interesting and thought provoking. I highly recommend it - already. Have you already read it? How did you like it? What parts of it stick with you? Have you not read it? Want to join me in my reading of it? Or do you have other recommendations as well? Well, I am off to read some more ... and discover as much as I can about this animal that has both frightened and fascinated me since as far back as I can remember. Enjoy your reading,Love,Jodi
P.S. Want to see part of the video that brought Susan Casey to this project/book? Here is a sample of the BBC documentary that started it all. (Please note that about 50% of all Great White attacks on seals result in survival of the seal. Hard to imagine anything can survive those hunters ... but nature knows what it is going ... and seals have adapted well to their predators).