A group of traders huddles around a pile of dried shark fins on a gleaming white floor in Hong Kong. A Papua New Guinean elder shoves off in his hand-carved canoe, ready to summon a shark with ancient magic. A scientist finds a rare shark in Indonesia and forges a deal with villagers so it and other species can survive.
In this eye-opening adventure that spans the globe, Juliet Eilperin investigates the fascinating ways different individuals and cultures relate to the ocean’s top predator. Along the way, she reminds us why, after millions of years, sharks remain among nature’s most awe-inspiring creatures.
From Belize to South Africa, from Shanghai to Bimini, we see that sharks are still the object of an obsession that may eventually lead to their extinction. This is why movie stars and professional athletes go shark hunting in Miami and why shark’s fin soup remains a coveted status symbol in China. Yet we also see glimpses of how people and sharks can exist alongside one another: surfers tolerating their presence off Cape Town and ecotourists swimming with sharks that locals in the Yucatán no longer have to hunt.
With a reporter’s instinct for a good story and a scientist’s curiosity, Eilperin offers us an up-close understanding of these extraordinary, mysterious creatures in the most entertaining and illuminating shark encounter you’re likely to find outside a steel cage.
Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Guest Reviewer: Susan Casey
Susan Casey is the bestselling author of The Wave and The Devil's Teeth.
 © Ruven Afanador |
In the deeply mysterious ocean, no this darkness, and shows how corner is more shadowy to us than the unknown, uncharted realm of the shark. And as with all shadows, we’re afraid of what lurks in them. Juliet Eilperin’s beautifully evocative Demon Fish lights up fearing sharks rather than understanding them has cost us more than we know. (It’s cost the sharks even more: Though we’ve never been able to pinpoint how many of them live in our planet’s waters, we do know that their populations are plunging, possibly even into decimation territory, largely at our hands.)
For my money the best, page-turning narratives are immersive ones, and Eilperin excels at this. Readers will enjoy traveling with her as she ventures from Indonesia to Japan to Africa to North America in dauntless pursuit of answers to questions that few writers have asked: Why do we approach sharks with such runaway emotion? Why do we fear these fish sometimes, and revere them others? What’s really going on with these animals, beneath the ocean’s surface? And of course the big one: after surviving all five global mass extinctions, can sharks make it through another decade of co-existing with us?
--Susan Casey
Review
“For this inclusive and important book, Eilperin traveled around the world to find people who study, fish for, dive with, venerate, or have been attacked by sharks . . . . [she] discusses many others who have brought sharks into human consciousness—Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, and Jacques Cousteau; to this list, we must now add Eilperin herself.”
—Richard Ellis, The American Scholar
“More books probably have been written about sharks than about any other creatures that live in the sea, so when I opened this one I was skeptical: What could it possibly add? A great deal, it turns out . . . Eilperin circles the world in pursuit of sharks and the people who love and hate them . . . whether they are killers or protectors, she tells their stories with fairness and understanding. I forgot the time as I immersed myself in the world of sharks. Whether you’ve never read a book about sharks or have a shelf full of them, this is a book for you.”
—Callum Roberts, The Washington Post
“Eilperin investigates the greatest threats to sharks: the shark fin trade and the ecological and economic forces affecting shark populations . . . The book is certainly timely. And Demon Fish does the subject justice.”
—David McGuire, San Francisco Chronicle
“Poised to be one of the summer’s most compelling beach reads.”
—Rachel Syme, NPR.org
“In this wide-ranging natural history of shark-human relations, the author recounts frank interviews with an entertaining cast of scientists, fishermen, wholesalers, chefs, and eco-tour operators, all of whom have a stake in the survival of the oceans’ top predators. She also gets into the water with the sharks. For readers who like passionate investigative reporting.”
—Rick Roche, Booklist
“In this fascinating and meticulously reported book, Juliet Eilperin crisscrosses the globe, on the trail of one of the most mysterious creatures. She illuminates not only the hidden nature of the seas, but also the societies whose survival depend on them.”
—David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z
“Hate, fear, envy, awe, worship. Of the many shark books, precious few explore the human-shark relationship. And none do with such style as Juliet Eilperin does in this fact-packed, fast-paced narrative. This is the shark book for the person who wants to understand both what sharks are, and what sharks mean. Bite into it.”
—Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean and The View From Lazy Point; A Natural Year in an Unnatural World
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Sharks were once worshipped as deities, later feared and loathed, still later hunted to the brink of extinction. Which brings us to the present time, with shark populations in precipitious decline. People tend to think of sharks in terms of their rare but deadly attacks on humans, but they are also an important part of the ecology of the oceans, and their loss will bring irreparable harm.
Written in chatty, journalistic style, reading Demon Fish is like watching multiple episodes of Sixty Minutes, with visits to shark callers in Papua New Guinea, shark fin traders in Hong Kong, shark fishermen, and activists of all kinds trying to save the sharks. Interesting tidbits about the biology of sharks alternate with interviews, skipping from one country and continent to another, stopping in at shark auctions, to quaint shops with dried shark fins in jars, to committees for the sharkers and other committees for shark conservation. Plus, everything you ever wanted to know about shark's fin soup.
And there's the problem with this book. Too much, too scattered, and too preachy. Author Juliet Eilperin maintains the same chatty style chapter after long chapter, but left this reader skimming toward the end of the book. The material about sharks themselves was fascinating, but there wasn't enough of it to hold this reader's interest. If you're obsessed with saving the oceanic environment you will probably like this book, but it's not my favorite. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
Written in chatty, journalistic style, reading Demon Fish is like watching multiple episodes of Sixty Minutes, with visits to shark callers in Papua New Guinea, shark fin traders in Hong Kong, shark fishermen, and activists of all kinds trying to save the sharks. Interesting tidbits about the biology of sharks alternate with interviews, skipping from one country and continent to another, stopping in at shark auctions, to quaint shops with dried shark fins in jars, to committees for the sharkers and other committees for shark conservation. Plus, everything you ever wanted to know about shark's fin soup.
And there's the problem with this book. Too much, too scattered, and too preachy. Author Juliet Eilperin maintains the same chatty style chapter after long chapter, but left this reader skimming toward the end of the book. The material about sharks themselves was fascinating, but there wasn't enough of it to hold this reader's interest. If you're obsessed with saving the oceanic environment you will probably like this book, but it's not my favorite. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Sharks are not the best ambassadors for their own survival. The original sea monsters of yore, they are not cute and cuddly, warm and fuzzy. And while they may be photogenic, it's not in an "Aww" kind of way. It's more akin to an "Aaah!" So while other animals imperiled by man's actions, such as the playful otter and friendly dolphin, the majestic whale and the placid turtle, endear themselves to humans and thus find themselves saved from utter destruction, it wasn't until recently that anyone started giving a damn about the horrible, deadly, sinister, man-eating shark and the fact that we've been killing them off indiscriminately since we discovered their existence a few hundred years ago. Many cultures, both today and in the past, might say the only good shark is a dead shark. Well, as some individuals and countries are coming to find out, that statement is the biggest piece of dumb-ass logic anyone has ever thought up.
We've so impacted the shark's environment, with our industries, our pollution, our fishing, that not only have several species of shark declined in population by anywhere from 90 to 99%, those sharks being caught today are smaller than their counterparts of even just a hundred years ago. Sharks do not rebound quickly; though some species give birth to large litters, many species take years to mature and only reproduce a limited number of times in their life--most of the time the litters they produce are small, with only one or two pups per birth. While we've begun to--finally--set aside protected waters, those areas cover only a fraction of the shark's territory and even then, some of the protections contain loopholes which still allow sharks to be fished. The truth is, we still know very little about these creatures, who've managed to stick around this planet for nearly 425 million years. That's 425 *million* years, people. These creatures, who've evolved into some of the most perfectly, if occasionally oddly, designed animals on the planet, have been around since before the dinosaurs and have even contributed to our own evolution (the bones of our inner ear, the way we swallow and talk due to muscles and cranial nerves which are the same as those which move a shark's gills), are still decried as man-eating monsters who deserve no pity. Yet these monsters are being systematically wiped out by us, humans, a predator more devastating, more mercenary, more cruel than any shark on this planet.
Juliet Eilperin's book is a well-researched investigation of the different ways in which we've poached, killed, decimated and otherwise pillaged the world's oceans of this apex predator, and the repercussions various governments and peoples have reaped as a result, in the form of depleted fish stocks, depressed economies, not to mention lost tribal traditions and vanishing cultural heritages. From the travails of Mark "the Shark" Quaratiano, who runs a fishing charter in Miami and complains that instead of sticking his hand in the water and pulling out a shark from the infested waters, he now has to work for several hours before he's able to catch a single shark for his macho-men, testosterone-boosting weenie clients (aww, poor baby), to the shark callers of Papua New Guinea, who are losing their faith-based tradition, which has sustained their native culture through colonization and Christian missionary proselytizing, due to the simple fact that the sharks of their islands have disappeared due to overfishing. Not the overfishing of prey fish, although that's played a part; no, overfishing of the sharks themselves. Which brings us to the most horrendous activity responsible for the decline of the shark: Finning. The practice of hauling a shark on board, slicing the pectoral and dorsal fins off the animal and tossing it, often while still alive, back in the water, to drown as it sinks to the ocean floor. Millions of sharks each year are killed in this manner, to supply one industry, shark's fin soup. And yet, as an ingredient, shark's fin adds nothing to the soup; it's a thin, noodle-like ribbon of cartilage which adds no flavor, only prestige to a dish which was once served only to a select few but now, with the rise of the Chinese middle class, is consumed at any and every occasion where such prestige is desired. Eilperin follows the trail of this world-wide trade, from the poor fishermen who are simply following the money even as they realize how the sharks have disappeared from their fishing grounds, to the secretive auction houses, where fins are sorted and sold with a minimum of words and a maximum of dollars and yen exchanged. The author details her travels around the world, to the different hotspots of shark fishing as well as shark protection and education, in a vivid, yet rational voice; her book is a clear-eyed dissection of our legacy towards the elasmobranch family (that's the shark, skate and ray family for those who are not selachophiles [shark lovers, a word I just made up]), backed up by sound scientific data and in-depth research. Part travelogue, part scientific journal, this book is a lively and fascinating look at how various cultures relate to this ocean predator, often in a surprising and (despite how I might've made it sound) sometimes positive way.
I've been a shark lover for as long as I can remember. It's been a love tempered by an equal measure of fear; because I know some sharks like shallow, murky water, growing up in Florida, I never went past my ankles (if I could help it) whenever we spent a day at the beach. I'd love to go cage diving in South Africa and see a great white up close; even though I know it creates a Pavlovian response, I'd still like to visit a shark feeding operation in Bimini, wear a mesh suit and sit in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Yet, when I was younger, I was scared of even swimming in the pool by myself, because of the fear of what might come up from the bottom of the deep end. (Yes, I realize I was swimming in a chlorinated pool and that there was no creature, of any sort, waiting in the deep end; psychological fears are hard to overcome, no matter what kind of logic you throw at them.) I still enjoy Jaws, even though I scream at the TV screen in frustration for the erroneous stereotype it puts forth; I've watched The Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week festival since it's inception, even though, as the years went on, I got bored with many of the programs as they didn't teach me anything I didn't already know. So, as you might've guessed, this book appealed to me at a basic level. However, if you've never given sharks a second thought; if you've seen Jaws and shuddered but never really desired to know any more about those creatures than what was portrayed in the movie; even if you think sharks are evil incarnate and deserve to be killed, I urge each and every one of you to pick up this book and read it. Sharks may not be endearing to the masses, but upon completing Demon Fish I dare you not to feel some sympathy and distress over how we've treated a creature who, quite frankly, is just trying to live on this planet, the same as us. The story of sharks is a story about us, in the long run, and how we choose to interact with the creatures who share our space.
We've so impacted the shark's environment, with our industries, our pollution, our fishing, that not only have several species of shark declined in population by anywhere from 90 to 99%, those sharks being caught today are smaller than their counterparts of even just a hundred years ago. Sharks do not rebound quickly; though some species give birth to large litters, many species take years to mature and only reproduce a limited number of times in their life--most of the time the litters they produce are small, with only one or two pups per birth. While we've begun to--finally--set aside protected waters, those areas cover only a fraction of the shark's territory and even then, some of the protections contain loopholes which still allow sharks to be fished. The truth is, we still know very little about these creatures, who've managed to stick around this planet for nearly 425 million years. That's 425 *million* years, people. These creatures, who've evolved into some of the most perfectly, if occasionally oddly, designed animals on the planet, have been around since before the dinosaurs and have even contributed to our own evolution (the bones of our inner ear, the way we swallow and talk due to muscles and cranial nerves which are the same as those which move a shark's gills), are still decried as man-eating monsters who deserve no pity. Yet these monsters are being systematically wiped out by us, humans, a predator more devastating, more mercenary, more cruel than any shark on this planet.
Juliet Eilperin's book is a well-researched investigation of the different ways in which we've poached, killed, decimated and otherwise pillaged the world's oceans of this apex predator, and the repercussions various governments and peoples have reaped as a result, in the form of depleted fish stocks, depressed economies, not to mention lost tribal traditions and vanishing cultural heritages. From the travails of Mark "the Shark" Quaratiano, who runs a fishing charter in Miami and complains that instead of sticking his hand in the water and pulling out a shark from the infested waters, he now has to work for several hours before he's able to catch a single shark for his macho-men, testosterone-boosting weenie clients (aww, poor baby), to the shark callers of Papua New Guinea, who are losing their faith-based tradition, which has sustained their native culture through colonization and Christian missionary proselytizing, due to the simple fact that the sharks of their islands have disappeared due to overfishing. Not the overfishing of prey fish, although that's played a part; no, overfishing of the sharks themselves. Which brings us to the most horrendous activity responsible for the decline of the shark: Finning. The practice of hauling a shark on board, slicing the pectoral and dorsal fins off the animal and tossing it, often while still alive, back in the water, to drown as it sinks to the ocean floor. Millions of sharks each year are killed in this manner, to supply one industry, shark's fin soup. And yet, as an ingredient, shark's fin adds nothing to the soup; it's a thin, noodle-like ribbon of cartilage which adds no flavor, only prestige to a dish which was once served only to a select few but now, with the rise of the Chinese middle class, is consumed at any and every occasion where such prestige is desired. Eilperin follows the trail of this world-wide trade, from the poor fishermen who are simply following the money even as they realize how the sharks have disappeared from their fishing grounds, to the secretive auction houses, where fins are sorted and sold with a minimum of words and a maximum of dollars and yen exchanged. The author details her travels around the world, to the different hotspots of shark fishing as well as shark protection and education, in a vivid, yet rational voice; her book is a clear-eyed dissection of our legacy towards the elasmobranch family (that's the shark, skate and ray family for those who are not selachophiles [shark lovers, a word I just made up]), backed up by sound scientific data and in-depth research. Part travelogue, part scientific journal, this book is a lively and fascinating look at how various cultures relate to this ocean predator, often in a surprising and (despite how I might've made it sound) sometimes positive way.
I've been a shark lover for as long as I can remember. It's been a love tempered by an equal measure of fear; because I know some sharks like shallow, murky water, growing up in Florida, I never went past my ankles (if I could help it) whenever we spent a day at the beach. I'd love to go cage diving in South Africa and see a great white up close; even though I know it creates a Pavlovian response, I'd still like to visit a shark feeding operation in Bimini, wear a mesh suit and sit in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Yet, when I was younger, I was scared of even swimming in the pool by myself, because of the fear of what might come up from the bottom of the deep end. (Yes, I realize I was swimming in a chlorinated pool and that there was no creature, of any sort, waiting in the deep end; psychological fears are hard to overcome, no matter what kind of logic you throw at them.) I still enjoy Jaws, even though I scream at the TV screen in frustration for the erroneous stereotype it puts forth; I've watched The Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week festival since it's inception, even though, as the years went on, I got bored with many of the programs as they didn't teach me anything I didn't already know. So, as you might've guessed, this book appealed to me at a basic level. However, if you've never given sharks a second thought; if you've seen Jaws and shuddered but never really desired to know any more about those creatures than what was portrayed in the movie; even if you think sharks are evil incarnate and deserve to be killed, I urge each and every one of you to pick up this book and read it. Sharks may not be endearing to the masses, but upon completing Demon Fish I dare you not to feel some sympathy and distress over how we've treated a creature who, quite frankly, is just trying to live on this planet, the same as us. The story of sharks is a story about us, in the long run, and how we choose to interact with the creatures who share our space.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
For some reason, it's a message that isn't getting through: we're killing our oceans. We fish certain stocks to unsustainability, move onto the next species, clean the ocean of that one, and move onto the next. The past century of technological advances in fishing have led to the death of our oceans.
Yet, lost in all of the drama of plunging edible fish stocks have been the apex predators. While last ditch efforts may rebuild popoulations of cod, herring and other fish, the plight of sharks may not be reversible. And the numbers are simply stunning in some cases: one species of hammerhead shark is currently at 1% of its historic population, and more monster shark fishing tournaments are being scheduled every day.
Author Juliet Eilperin brings us through what it is about sharks that makes us ignore their needs, the unwavering ignorance that allows us to remain blind to their problems, and our knee-jerk fears of the animal, traceable back to one 1970s summer blockbuster film. Demon Fish examines the relationship between man and shark, and implores us to act on their behalf.
Yet, lost in all of the drama of plunging edible fish stocks have been the apex predators. While last ditch efforts may rebuild popoulations of cod, herring and other fish, the plight of sharks may not be reversible. And the numbers are simply stunning in some cases: one species of hammerhead shark is currently at 1% of its historic population, and more monster shark fishing tournaments are being scheduled every day.
Author Juliet Eilperin brings us through what it is about sharks that makes us ignore their needs, the unwavering ignorance that allows us to remain blind to their problems, and our knee-jerk fears of the animal, traceable back to one 1970s summer blockbuster film. Demon Fish examines the relationship between man and shark, and implores us to act on their behalf.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice introduction to the plight of the shark.
As one of the Jaws generation; I thought this book would be interesting to read. I admit to being attracted by the title.
This is not a biology book. Read more
This is not a biology book. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Mathew A. Shember
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book: Weaves together the full shark story
This book is a must read for anyone curious about sharks and the challenges confronting the world's oceans. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jake Schmidt
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and Informative - More about People's Relationships to...
I found this an entertaining and information book. However, I will say that it is not what I initially expected. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. T. Van Campen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aiming to make a real difference
Eilperin conducts a range of competent investigations that span the planet. She checks out shark callers in New Ireland, the shark-fin soup markets of Hong Kong, the science of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Brian Griffith
5.0 out of 5 stars
FANTASTIC!
This will be a really short review because this is the type of book that someone will either want to read or immediately dismiss because they aren't interested in sharks. Read more
Published 4 months ago by The Book Wheel
4.0 out of 5 stars
There's always more to learn...
Add me to the list of readers with a deep and abiding fascination with sharks. In college, I worked in the research lab of renowned ichthyologist and pioneering shark researcher... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Susan Tunis
4.0 out of 5 stars
I learned so much about sharks!
This was a fascinating read. Each chapter focused on a different story about sharks, from shark fin soup to a guy who runs a kind of extreme-shark-hunting business. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Callie Leuck
4.0 out of 5 stars
cultural history of humans and sharks
Enjoyable read. Eilperin offers both breadth and depth of coverage. It may be a bit dry for those seeking sensationalism, but has much to offer those who are looking for an... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Just Me
3.0 out of 5 stars
Was looking for something other than Devil's Teeth, but this wasn't it
I had read and enjoyed Susan Casey's Devil's Teeth some years back, but felt that like much of contemporary nonfiction, there was too much of the author in the narrative. Read more
Published 10 months ago by J. A. Walsh
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Book About People & Their Experiences With Sharks
Demon Fish - Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks, is an interesting non-fiction book by Juliet Eilperin, who is a National environmental reporter for The Washington Post,... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Pamela V
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