Springtime for sharks! Erstwhile botanist, lichen expert, and shark enthusiast George Albert Llano follows up H. David Baldridge's excellent text from yesterday with his own attempt at tackling the International Shark Attack File and explicating the lethal nature of SHARKS: ATTACKS ON MAN! Like Baldridge, Llano was a researcher who analyzed shark attacks for the US Navy, trying to tease out usable info from the chaotic noise of survivor reports. His book is much more straightforward than Baldridge's however, simply going through selected cases on a geographical basis, without as many scientific digressions. He covers the same handful of California attacks that Baldridge went over, including the terrible attack on Bob Pamperin which sees him cut in half by a Great White right in front of his dive partner's horrified eyes. A vintage Sports Illustrated article from 1960 covers these same shocking California cases while name dropping Llano, and also gives us a glimpse into midcentury shark attitudes: the extinct Megalodon is called "late and unlamented" and modern sharks are slurred as stupid, brutish killers even as staff writer Thomas Lineaweaver can't help but admit their evolutionary success. We hate 'em 'cause we ain't 'em!
In the American cases Llano makes note of the samaritans who were awarded Carnegie Hero Fund medals for their attempts at rescue. Some get gold, some silver or bronze, and I wonder who exactly was in charge of determining your rank for such a thing! Llano agrees with Baldridge that eyewitnesses have a nigh impossible time identifying shark species, often giving contradictory or impossible descriptions of fish. Llano is careful like Baldridge as well: in the case of the 1916 New Jersey attacks, he presents multiple theories as to the cause of the cluster, ranging from hungry sharks deprived their usual garbage meals from international shipping routes due to WWI disruption, to ravenous sharks pumped up for human flesh from feasting on stranded WWI sailors! Sharks got us coming and going, it seems!
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| Our author George out and about. |
Like Baldridge, Llano focuses on heavily documented Australian and South African cases, the two perfect storms of prime shark habitats that see heavy beach usage by humans. We get brief but effecting glimpses into the human dramas playing out here, with bathers, life guards, scientists, and shark hunters all playing their parts in a grand tapestry tied to our million year old friends, the sharks. In South Africa we also have the specter of racially segregated beaches, and decades later we might wonder: were Black bathers safer than whites on less frequented, less appealing beaches, or at greater risk due to lack of lookouts and official concern?
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| "Ahhhhhhhhhh!" |
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| "Grrrrrrrr!" "Aghhhhhhh!" "Errrrrrr!" |
Tucked into the backend of the photo spread is a familiar face: the sand tiger who graces the cover of Shark: The Killer of the Deep! Like Baldridge, Llano avoids gory victim shots, though that Mako at the front of the spread is surely a fearsome sight.
After all the carnage, Llano gives us some views we can use with advice on handling attacks and the aftermath. Preserve severed members if given the chance. Noted!
On a final note, these "Hi-Rise" book cases look pretty nifty, but I can't find any info on 'em on the modern web! Too bad, they'd make a great showcase for all these paperbacks.
Tempo Books, 1975
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