An excellent book for anyone who is serious about sharks

books:

	• The Sharks of North American Waters (W. L. Moody Natural History) Jose I. Castro Texas A&M University Press, 1983 - 196 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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An excellent book for anyone who is serious about sharks

If you love your sharks, this is the book you need to get. It has a well-written introduction, a very nice classification system to help you identify that shark you saw last week while diving, and in-depth descriptions of just about every shark prevalent in these waters. I would have liked to see more color photos of the sharks, but that's just picking at nits. This book will be a well-read part of your reference library for years to come.

Know your sharks

If you ask the average person to name as many sharks as they can, they might come up with about 15. This book has a lot more. It has an entry for every shark that can be found off the shores of North America, and because sharks are wide ranging animals, this means most of the sharks in the world. Castro, a scientist for the National Marine Fisheries Department, starts off with a very well done introduction to sharks in general. Then there is a dichotomous key to family and to species for all species covered. The write up on each species has a line drawing in profile and of the teeth. Aside from ID information there is a plethora of useful biological info that is hard to find in any one source for all species. This includes litter size, pup size and frequently age and size at maturity. If you have an interest in the natural history of marine animals, this book is a must have.

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Both a field guide and a natural history reference

I found this to be an excellent reference book. It is an easy read and presents taxonomic information in a way that everyone can grasp. Information provided for each shark species includes facts about the species biology and relation to man - information most field guides gloss over. As a marine biologist, I have found this book invauable.