Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark

Before Peter Benchley scared everyone out of the water with his 1974 novel "Jaws," Peter Matthiessen was writing eloquently about the Great White shark, the apex predator of the oceans. The film "Blue Water, White Death" was based on this book. His writing, along with the journals kept by diver Valerie Taylor, make this a must-have book for anyone interested in marine biology.

It's wonderful to be able to read the narrative of shark dives from the safety and comfort of home. This is a great narrative of the expedition to search for the Great White shark...hopefully the numerous "specials" on TV and the recent article in National Geographic will help "save" this treasure of the ocean. You can't help but get involved with this book, just as exciting and fascinating as any novel.If you enjoyed this one, try _Snow Leopard_ or _Indian Country_.

Blue Meridian is one of the great stories of underwater adventure and exploration. It's an account of the first substantial expedition to find and film the great white shark, and was conducted long before this type of film became routine (ala any Discovery Channel shark special). As such, not only is the reader presented with a wonderful and fast-paced story, but they are also exposed to a great deal of the (now) history of SCUBA diving and marine science. Because this was one of the first attempts to deal with sharks at close quarters, many of the techniques for filming sharks were tried for the first time during this expedition, and many of these techniques haven't been tried since (such as open-ocean swimming with feeding oceanic white-tips). There are also some charming anachornisms, such as Peter Matthiessen describing Peter Gimble giving him the "ok" symbol; a symbol now known to every diver, but then apparently new. There's a lot to find in this book. Don't be put off by its short length.

In a time when the thought of swimming with sharks was to have a death wish, five diver/photograghers and one expedition historian set to the high seas in search of the ellusive Great White shark. This book follows the expedition from the cold waters of South Africa, throughout the Indian Ocean, and ultimately to Dangerous Reef, South Australia in search of thier quarry. Matthiessen Beautifully portays the ocean environment as one of danger and excitement. Having candid encounters with Oceanic Whitetips, hand feeding a barracuda, playing with sea lions, and finally discovering the Great White Death. This book is an excellent companion to the film "Blue Water, White Death".

Glad to see this little gem of a book has gotten a well deserved and long overdue reprinting. This is Matthiessen's true first-person account as a crewmember during filming of the feature length documentary "Blue Water, White Death." Several years before "Jaws" made the name of the Great White Shark a household word, millionaire Peter Gimbal set out to find and film the "white death" taking with him the best underwater photographers and naturalists in the world at that time. The search took them from the whaling grounds off South Africa to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia before they caught a glimpse of the ocean's most feared creature. If you like ocean adventures, or any good story about men and women on a quest for the unknown, then Blue Meridian deliveres. If you're aready a fan of Matthiessen then the only question is: Why haven't you read Blue Meridian yet?