A Sea Monster's Tale - In Search of the Basking Shark

Colin Speedie

Summary

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.

Available since: 06/08/2021.

Science & Technology

Other books that might interest you

Start a Successful Career Today...

A. J. Newton

2nd Edition (Revised & Edited)A detailed step-by-step guide that takes you from a total beginner to a top-earning IT professional at the top of your career.Each chapter of this book has been meticulously put together by the author with the newcomer to Information Technology in mind.The book contains modern information and useful insights that will prove invaluable for IT professionals battling career stagnation.It demonstrates three pathways to three different successful careers in IT that almost anyone can start pursuing today, with or without a university degree.It includes the top IT certifications needed to boost your IT career in the 2020s.This book is a consolidation of 16+ years of experience, knowledge and tips gathered while working in the Information Technology Industry.It covers job hunting and what to expect at job interviews.It contains tips and tricks and provides guidance on decision-making every step of the way.It also includes a glossary of 120 key IT terms to get you started.It is straight to the point. No boring and unnecessary text.Purposefully designed with colourful pages and appealing illustrations to make it an easy read.

Show book

Sound - A Memoir of Hearing Lost...

Bella Bathurst

“A moving and fascinating book about sound and what it means to be human” from the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author of The Lighthouse Stevensons (Financial Times). In this surprising and moving book, award-winning writer Bella Bathurst shares the extraordinary true story of how she lost her hearing and eventually regained it and what she learned from her twelve years of deafness. Diving into a wide-ranging exploration of silence and noise, she interviews psychologists, ear surgeons, and professors to uncover fascinating insights about the science of sound. But she also speaks with ordinary people who are deaf or have lost their hearing, including musicians, war veterans, and factory workers, to offer a perceptive, thought-provoking look at what sound means to us. If sight gives us the world, then hearing—or our ability to listen—gives us our connections with other people. But, as this smart, funny, and profoundly honest examination reveals, our relationship with sound is both more personal and far more complex than we might expect. “Bathurst is a restless, curious writer . . . After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way.” —The Guardian “A hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence . . . terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting.” —Literary Review “Bathurst’s affecting memoir will enlighten and educate.” —Publishers Weekly “A memoir of hearing loss and what the author learned . . . through her unexpected recovery from it. A good writer knows material when it presents itself, and Bathurst is a very good writer.” —Kirkus Reviews

Show book

Connecting With Animals As Teachers

Richard Louv

This program explores a pervasive ailment of our age which is Nature Deficit Disorder. “The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need.” Louv also adds, “Conservation is no longer enough. For everything we receive from nature, we need to give back, we need to nurture nature, as much as it nurtures us.”

Show book

Demin Remin in Preventive...

PhD Robert L. Karlinsey

Despite significant progress in the management of oral health, tooth decay remains stubbornly widespread and resilient. Complicating this further, there remain gaps in clinical use and knowledge involving fluoride and remineralization therapies. To help address these problems, Demin/Remin in Preventive Dentistry explores demineralization and remineralization processes by synthesizing a variety of data and research to produce a fresh perspective from one who has devoted significant effort to improving remineralization therapies in preventive dentistry. 
The source material for this book is fairly diverse, with more than 900 references called forth from various fields of study, including medicine, dentistry, chemistry, biology, materials science, food science, along with reports and articles from journalists, and nonprofit and government organizations. Divided into 10 distinct chapters, the topics discussed include oral bacteria, foods and drinks, acids, pH, sound and demineralized enamel structure, dental therapeutics used throughout history, fluoride and various fluoride formats (including toothpastes, varnishes and more), calcium phosphate systems, remineralization processes, and perspectives related to minimally invasive dentistry. 
Global tooth decay remains a major socioeconomic burden, commanding the need for improved oral health strategies. Demin/Remin in Preventive Dentistry provides a fresh look at an old (and largely preventable!) problem by reviewing known information, as well as aspects not addressed in other dentistry books. Demin/Remin in Preventive Dentistry will appeal especially to those with a ‘prevention-first’ mindset, as well as researchers and clinicians passionate about delivering or improving oral health benefits for those of us both young and young at heart. 
Note: This audio version excludes figures, tables, and bibliography, but these are available in the print and ebook versions.

Show book

Reigniting the Human Connection...

Michael P. Wright, Jennifer H....

In order to resolve the significant racial, ethnic, language, and financial inequities that exist in healthcare quality and access, health systems must undertake the development of systematic approaches to advance diversity, inclusion, and health equity.Developed from the data, experience, and research that emerged from ten years of intentional creation of such an approach at Northwell Health, Reigniting the Human Connection: A Pathway to Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity offers readers an adaptable framework on which to build their own response. This carefully constructed framework is centered on a holistic vision of care, one that utilizes approaches that support the emergence of patients as partners in their care in order to meet the demands of twenty-first-century healthcare.

Show book

The Last Run - A True Story of...

Todd Lewan

It was a desperate mission that made front-page headlines and captured the attention of millions of readers around the world. In January 1998, in the dead of an Alaskan winter, a cataclysmic Arctic storm with hurricane-force winds and towering seas forced five fishermen to abandon their vessel in the Gulf of Alaska and left them adrift in thirty-eight-degree water with no lifeboat. Their would-be rescuers were 150 miles away at the Coast Guard station, with the nearby airport shut down by an avalanche.The Last Run is the epic tale of the wreck of the oldest registered fishing schooner in Alaska, a hellish Arctic tempest, and the three teams of aviators in helicopters who withstood 140-mph gusts and hovered alongside waves that were ten stories high. But what makes this more than a true-life page-turner is its portrait of untamed Alaska and the unflappable spirit of people who forge a different kind of life on America's last frontier, the "end of the roaders" who are drawn to, or flee to, Alaska to seek a final destiny.

Show book