Contents of this Issue:
All publicly available
Kosrae and Yap, Micronesia
Rest in Peace, Gladys Howard
Shark Explorers, Cape Town, South Africa
Mozambique, Mexico, Philippines . . .
Divers, Your Very Presence Affects Reef Fish Behavior
No Diver Left Behind?
Just Think, He Might Have Been in Your Dive Class
Shark Bytes
Barracuda Slaughter at McCauley Memorial
Letters about our Latest Articles
Is Your Camera Hurting Marine Life?
Flotsam & Jetsam
www.undercurrent.org
Editorial Office:
Ben Davison
Publisher and Editor
Undercurrent
3020 Bridgeway, Suite 102
Sausalito, CA 94965
Contact Ben
John Bantin, who writes often, wittily and thoroughly
about diving for Undercurrent, just had his second book
published -- Shark Bytes, his personal stories and firsthand
descriptions and anecdotes of over 30 years of
diving with and photographing sharks. While Bantin
does write about shark behavior and characteristics, the
book is not an encyclopedia, ID book, or natural history
drama descriptor. "I don't offer myself as an expert
regarding sharks," Bantin says. "I simply offer myself as
a shark witness, and in Shark Bytes, I delve into the way
my own attitude to and understanding of sharks has
developed during the intervening years. It's about how I
grew to love diving with sharks."
Along with his "wow" close-up photographs on
nearly every page, Bantin describes his encounters
with many of the sharks you might meet on your own
dives, from wobbegongs in Australia to whale sharks in
Galapagos. He tells about his first certified openwater
dive in Antigua, during which his divemaster led him
unsuspectingly into a cave that contained a nurse shark
(and the dive boat sank); a scary encounter with silky
sharks taking his measure in the Red Sea; and a tiger
shark at Grand Bahama that picked him up by the tank
and swam off with him. Bantin also doesn't stint on
giving his opinions about shark behavior and humans'
interaction with them -- in the chapter on oceanic whitetips,
he gives his theory about why five unfortunate
swimmers were savagely attacked by one off Egypt's
Red Sea beaches in 2010. He devotes rich commentary in the last two chapters, titled "Shark Feeding: Right or
Wrong?" and "Is the Only Good Shark a Dead Shark?"
He also shares his encounters with dugongs, dolphins,
manta rays, and gigantic groupers.
There are quotes from Peter Benchley, underwater
filmmaker Mike deGruy, Stuart and Graham Cove, and
Marty Snyderman, the last of whom offers sage advice
about being close to "Mr. Big and Might Be Dangerous."
Whole chapters were supplied by Pete Atkinson and
Bret Gilliam, experienced shark divers in their own
right. Overall, Bantin's stories are both informative and
conversational, treating readers as smart divers who just
want to know more about sharks. By including his own
trials and tribulations about diving, Bantin shows how,
with common sense and a big heap of respect, shark diving
can be both safe and glorious fun.
Buy Bantin's book through our website (www.undercurrent.org), and all our proceeds from book sales go
toward saving and protecting the world's coral reefs.