Colin Speedie's new book takes us from swashbuckling hunts of giant sharks by reckless individuals with makeshift harpoons, through an age of mass slaughter, to the author's personal shark-tracking adventures in the name of conservation.There are few marine creatures as spectacular as the Basking Shark. At up to 11 metres in length and seven tonnes in weight, this colossal, plankton-feeding fish is one of the largest in the world, second only to the whale shark. Historically, Basking Sharks were a familiar sight in the northern hemisphere - off the coasts of Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA, for example. In an 18th Century world without electricity, they became the focus of active hunting for their huge livers containing large amounts of valuable oil, primarily used in lamps.Catch numbers were small enough to leave populations largely intact, but during the 20th Century a new breed of hunter joined the fray, some driven as much by a need for adventure as for financial gain. With improved equipment and experience, they exploited the shark on an industrial scale that drastically reduced numbers, leading to localised near-extinction in some areas.From the 1970's onward a new generation took to the seas, this time with conservation in mind to identify where the shark might still be found in the waters around the British Isles, employing new technologies to solve long-standing mysteries about the behaviour of this elusive creature. Using the best of both old and new research techniques, the case was built to justify the species becoming one of the most protected sharks in the oceans.Today, the Basking Shark is a much-loved cornerstone of our natural heritage. There are positive signs that the population has stabilised and may even be slowly recovering from the damage of the past, proving that timely conservation measures can be effective.Join us on a journey amidst wild seas, places, people and conservation history in the battle to protect this iconic creature - a true sea monster's tale.

An authoritative guide to the identification, systematics, distribution, and biology of the thirty-eight species of the Order Beloniformes in the western North Atlantic Ocean The final volume in the Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series covers the Beloniformes, a diverse order of fishes containing six families and at least two hundred and thirty extant species found worldwide in marine and freshwater environments. This excellently illustrated, authoritative book describes the thirty-eight species of beloniform fishes-needlefishes, sauries, halfbeaks, and flyingfishes-that live in the western Atlantic Ocean. Compiled from new revisions, original research, and critical reviews of existing information, this tenth book in the series completes a major reference work in taxonomy and ichthyology for both amateurs and professionals, and all students of the sea. Distributed for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.