This complete guide to great white shark specimens preserved in the museums and aquariums of the United States catalogs 160 great white shark items in 26 institutions. The preserved material includes whole specimens as well as parts of specimens (jaws, teeth, vertebrae, etc.) Each entry details the methods of preserving or preparing the specimen (freezing, drying, taxidermying or skin-mounting, embalming, fixating followed by permanent storage in aqueous solutions of ethyl or isopropyl alcohols), and creating a model of the shark cast from a mold of the original specimen. The work also includes a general introduction describing the biology, ethology and ecology of the great white shark and more detailed accounts of the various preservation methods.

The great white shark has been haunting the waters of the Mediterranean Sea since well before man dared to venture on the water. In 1996, the Italian Great White Shark Data Bank began collecting and recording encounters between great white sharks and boats, bathers, divers, fishermen and others from the Middle Ages to the present. This meticulously researched work presents the study's findings for the first time, releasing a trove of information on the great white's size, distribution, habitat, behavior, reproduction, diet, fisheries and attacks on humans. With 593 records of great white sharks from the entire sea, this volume represents the most complete and comprehensive study on the species in that region and constitutes a rich resource for historians, scientists, fishermen, and divers.