2.5 stars

In the 1970s, the author managed to get himself on an excursion that is filming a movie about sharks. Matthiessen learns how to dive with one of those cages to keep him safe from any sharks that may come by.

The book couldn’t keep my attention and I kept falling asleep (granted, it was also a busy, stressful week). It was very slow to read, even when I was paying attention. I wasn’t happy with the animals (particularly the whales) they used as bait to attract the sharks. There was also very little about the sharks themselves, beyond how dangerous they are. I wanted to know more about the sharks, and not the emphasis on how dangerous, which I feel has contributed to the scary shark stereotype. But then, the focus was more on making the movie. The cages were cool – it sounded like they were fairly new at the time. There were some really good photos included in the book. Overall, though, I was disappointed in this. ( )

Peter Mathiessen' Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark provides as useful antidote to the excesses of both sides of the debate. Mathiessen is one of our great nature writers and an environmentalist from the days before it became fashionable. Peter Gimble invited him along on a trip to South African waters to see if they could get some film footage of great whites from the inside of free-floating aluminum cages. The plan was to follow whaling ships out of Durban who, after harpooning the whale, inflate them with air so they will float and can be towed into shore later. On occasions when many sharks have been present, attracted by the blood, a frenzy has erupted that, after six or seven hours, might leave only the backbone. C. carcharias has a fearsome reputation. In Australia the great white is known as the " death" and numerous documented accounts exist of them attacking small skiffs and dories. A good friend of one of the divers on Gimble's trip had been bitten in half by a great white. His diver companion had hauled the top half back to shore where he took some photographs (which could never be sold because of their gruesome nature) before reporting the incident.

One great white that had been harpooned by a whale boat had a jaw measuring a vertical opening of three feet. While in South Africa, the team experienced the lunacy of apartheid. Two shipmates from the Cape who had been hired to work on their boat were formally classified as "" by the South African government, but they were light enough to pass as white and often went to European bars where they were rarely challenged. On one evening they were accompanied by the second engineer who looked so "black" that he was told to leave even though he was officially classified as "white" but he had forgotten his card that proved it. " In other words, this weird classification of human beings isn't even efficient, so that in the end all the dull cruelty it has meant for millions will have been in vain." ( )

This book describes the making of the film "Blue Water, White Death". Peter Matthiessen, the author, was along for the ride as amateur diver, "tame naturalist", journalist and general adventurer. The resulting work is a travelogue, adventure story, psychological study and natural history essay all at once. The writing, while not actually spectacular, is better than good and the story gets richer as you move toward the end of the film-making and of the book. One theme glancingly touched on here and there without any conclusion being drawn is what drives the obsessive adventurer.

Matthiessen provides a succinct description of the actual experience of the trip when he says: "We are so much the victims of nature ... We depend on water clarity, wind, waves, light, marine life, complicated equipment, a half-assed ship owned by a pirate, and many people whose health is continually under great jeopardy."

While I personally would have preferred somewhat less adventure and significantly more natural science, I enjoyed reading the book and rated it at 4 stars. ( )