by Casey, Susan
Over the years, many Farallon scientists whom I’ve never met have built a legacy: David Ainley, Bill Sydeman, Jim Lewis, Phil Henderson, Bob Boekelheide, Jerry Nussbaum, Burr Heneman, Harriet Huber, Larry Spear, Teya Penniman, Harry Carter, Craig Strong, Stephen Morrell, and Malcolm Coulter are among the names that appear over and over in the logbooks, and in countless papers furthering the study of the islands and their wildlife. Important white shark research was conducted at the Farallones by A. Peter Klimley, Ken Goldman, John McCosker, Scott Davis, and Andre Boustany. Too many interns to name have passed through the Jane Fonda Bedroom, but I wish I could acknowledge them all.
My intention in writing this book was simple: to do justice to a story that captivated me, the story of an unknown place, and the animals and people who were a part of it. Unfortunately, the reporting process turned out to be anything but simple, and some people were angered by my presence at the Farallones. I sincerely regret this. I greatly admire everyone whose job it is to protect and study the islands, and I never set out to jeopardize any part of their work. In the end, I hope I’ve made clear how extraordinary the stewardship of the Farallones has been in the hands of Joelle Buffa at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with Ellie Cohen and Bill Sydeman of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.
I have the great fortune to work for Isolde Motley, the corporate editor of Time Inc. She was the first person with whom I discussed this story and the first person to green-light it. Her support, guidance, and friendship went beyond what I could have hoped for. At Time Inc. I also owe thanks to Norman Pearlstine, John Huey, and Ann Moore, as well as Steve Koepp and Dan Goodgame for providing the assignment that dispatched me to the islands for the first time, Ned Desmond for toughening me up, Dan Okrent and Dick Stolley for helping me with just about everything, and John Squires, Mark Ford, Martha Nelson, Chris Hunt, Sid Evans, David Petzal, Rick Tetzeli, Rik Kirkland Eric Pooley, Jodi Kahn, Sheila Marmon, Claudette Hutchinson, Milt Williams, and Marcie Jacob. Yet more thanks to Janet Chan, Jim Aley, Mark Adams, Jason Adams, and Mark Golin for razor-sharp humor, sushi lunches, great music, and a steady supply of top shelf liquor. Proper gratitude expressed to my Time Inc. colleagues would fill an entire book in itself.
Terry McDonell, Tim Carvell, Laura Hohnhold, and David Granger read early versions of the manuscript and offered superb insights, as usual. Mark Bryant and John Tayman produced years of elegant, irreverent work that both taught and inspired. Sara Corbett, Mike Paterniti, and Rick Reilly provided insight, encouragement, late-night phone calls, and constant examples of what great writing is supposed to read like.
Martha Corcoran was pivotal to both the book’s beginning and its end stages. Gwen Kilvert conducted meticulous research with her typical cool. Katharine Cluverius at ICM and George Hodgman and Sam Douglas at Holt were indispensable readers. La Mura Boelling gave me sage counsel, as always. Mike Casey continued to scare the muskies away.
Writing a book, I discovered, requires asking your friends to go to extraordinary lengths to help you, even as you neglect them. Jenny Doll, Sharon Ludtke, Cathy Cook, Clare Hertel, Deanna Brown, Dean Heistad, Tanya Schubring, Paula Romano, Pam Lazzarotto, Angela Matusik, David Lynch, Kristin Gary, Aroni Reyes, Ann Jackson, Harry Apostolides, Stephen Sumner, and the incomparable Dottie Starr: I love you. Thanks.
And I can’t even begin to thank Jennifer Barth, Henry Holt’s editor in chief, whose touch is on every page of this volume, and John Sterling, Holt’s president, for his deep understanding of this story. I’m saving my biggest thanks for last, though, for my agent, Sloan Harris, who has been there every step of the way, dispensing perfect advice and occasionally talking me down from the ledge. I think I wrote this book in part so that I’d get to talk to him more.
On October 12, 2004, white sharks were listed on Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna), a global agreement intended to stave off the extirpation of species. This is a step in the right direction. Given white sharks’ newly discovered migratory habits, it is clear that local protection alone is not enough: The white sharks that remain are at large in the world’s oceans, not conveniently corralled in a few discrete locations. Their mating and pupping grounds remain unknown, they reproduce slowly and produce few offspring, and without strictly enforced, wide-ranging controls on hunting and trade, they really don’t stand a chance.
Simple logic dictates that the ocean’s resources need to be managed sustainably by international law. To date, this emphatically has not happened. The aquatic environment is being altered radically before we’ve even begun to understand it, an insane game of brinksmanship with potentially catastrophic results. And even as $10 billion is allocated for interplanetary exploration, ocean conservationists—monitoring 71 percent of the Earth—struggle for funding. Meanwhile, commercial fishing remains a zero-sum game, habitats are being destroyed, species lost forever.
As for the Farallon great whites, they may have adapted to everything that’s been thrown at them for the past 11 million years, but here’s the question: Will they survive another decade of us?
About the Author
Susan Casey is the development editor of Time Inc., where she was previously an editor at large, as well as the editor of Sports Illus trated Women. She also served as the creative director of Outside magazine, which during her tenure won three consecutive, history-making National Magazine Awards for General Excellence. Her writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Time, and For tune. A native of Toronto, she lives in New York City.
Owl Books
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An Owl Book® and ® are registered trademarks of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2005 by Susan Casey
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Title page photograph and photograph © Chris Fallows/apexpredators.com, photograph © Susan Casey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Casey, Susan, 1962–
The devil’s teeth: a true story of obsession and survival among America’s great white sharks / Susan Casey.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-0051-9
1. White shark—California—Farallon Islands—Anecdotes. I. Casey, Susan, 1962–II. Title.
QL638.95.L3C37 2005
597.3'3'09794—dc22
2004060782
Originally published in hardcover in 2005 by Henry Holt
Map © 2005 by David Cain
Looking west toward the South Farallon Islands, known to nineteenth-century sailors as the “Devil’s Teeth.” SUSAN CASEY
The Farallones’ sole inhabitable building, a 120-year-old, weather-beaten house. SUSAN CASEY
The cart path, with resident gulls. SUSAN CASEY
Peter Pyle, with Great Arch in the background. SUSAN CASEY
Scot Anderson on Just Imagine. SUSAN CASEY
The Shark Shack at East Landing, home to various surfboards and decoys, including the ill-fated Buoyhead Bob. SUSAN CASEY
Nothing is easy here: Peter launching the whaler, with the help of the East Landing crane. Due to the sharp rocks and cliffs that form the shoreline, there are no docking facilities at the Farallones. SUSAN CASEY
The Dinner Plate sees some action from a shark named Bluntnose. PETER PYLE
A shark roils the surface during an attack. People who encounter a great white shark at the surface are often stunned by the animal’s girth, which can measure eight feet. PETER PYLE
Last man diving: Ron Elliott, the only commercial diver with nerve enough to pick urchins at the islands, on the deck of his boat GW, just south of Shark Alley. SUSAN CASEY
A shark attack at the Farallones is not usually a subtle event; a pole camera is used to capture an underwater shot. PETER PYLE
Aerial view, looking west, of the South Fa
rallones. This photograph was taken in 1949. LIBRARY, CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
“Wicked scary”: an aerial view of the North Farallones, circa 1952. LIBRARY, CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Eggers unloading their plunder at North Landing, with Arch Rock and Sugarloaf in the background. In 1905, a storm ripped the derrick from its platform and it was never replaced. LIBRARY, CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
1896 egger, wearing his specially designed “egg shirt,” designed to hold eighteen-dozen murre eggs as he scaled the Farallon cliffs. BOLTON COLLECTION, LIBRARY, CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
A northerly view of Southeast Farallon’s marine terrace, houses, and Lighthouse Hill, taken from Mirounga Bay. PETER PYLE
An act of devotion: Scot Anderson on Sharkwatch, which he created in 1987. Every daylight hour during shark season, an observer stands at the lighthouse scanning the islands for signs of shark activity. SUSAN CASEY
An eighteen-foot shark investigates a six-foot surfboard. PETER PYLE
The fate of a surfboard at the Farallones. PETER PYLE
Scot Anderson (in orange) observes a feeding. Also in the boat are director Paul Atkins and cinematographer Peter Scoones of the BBC film crew that visited the Farallones in 1993 to film The Great White Shark. PETER PYLE
Whiteslash, an eighteen-foot female Peter described as “gentle and maternal,” cruises the whaler. PETER PYLE
Great Murre Cave (right) and Little Murre Cave, cleaved into the rock below Shubrick Point. SUSAN CASEY
Juvenile northern elephant seal, the favored food of great white sharks, lounging on the marine terrace. SUSAN CASEY
California sea lions basking on the old stone steps at North Landing. SUSAN CASEY
Twenty-five thousand western gulls make Southeast Farallon Island their home. SUSAN CASEY
Riding the Billy Pugh at East Landing, with Kingfish and the Dinner Plate in background. SUSAN CASEY
A cassin’s auklet chick. SUSAN CASEY
The sixty-foot steel cutter Just Imagine, with skipper Tom Camp. SUSAN CASEY
An unquiet cove: Just Imagine (with Tubby tied off to starboard) at its moorage in Fisherman’s Bay, 150 yards west of Tower Point and 200 yards east of Sugarloaf. SUSAN CASEY
Marine scientist and shark-tagging expert Kevin Weng from the Block Lab at Hopkins Marine Station, Monterey. SUSAN CASEY
Part of the Just Imagine diet: a cabezon, a fish with a face that could scare small children. SUSAN CASEY
“Just get there as fast as you can”: Peter Pyle rowing Tubby across Fisherman’s Bay. SUSAN CASEY
Scot Anderson on the marine terrace, with Saddle Rock in the background. SUSAN CASEY
The outer edge of the fearsome Maintop Bay, a spooky, boat-eating stretch of water that makes everyone uneasy. Not surprisingly, the sharks seem to love it. SUSAN CASEY
Unfavorable boat-launching conditions at East Landing. PETER PYLE
The Perfect Wave, a pristine right break that rolls along Shark Alley. PETER PYLE
