Bowhead whales in the region. Cory Matthews et al., “Killer Whale Presence Drives Bowhead Whale Selection for Sea Ice in Arctic Seascapes of Fear,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 12 (2020): 6590–98, https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1911761117.

One such regime shift. Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen et al., “A Regime Shift in the Southeast Greenland Marine Ecosystem,” Global Change Biology 29, no. 3 (2022): 668–85, doi:10.1111/gcb.16494.

Experts now think we’ve passed the point. Yeon-Hee Kim et al., “Observationally-Constrained Projections of an Ice-Free Arctic Even under a Low Emission Scenario,” Nature Communications 14 (2023): 3139, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38511-8.

CHAPTER 3

“It is extraordinary.” Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic, 1910–1913 (London, Bombay, and Sydney: Constable and Company, 1922).

Halley Bay colony was abandoned. Peter T. Fretwell and Philip N. Trathan, “Emperors on Thin Ice: Three Years of Breeding Failure at Halley Bay,” Antarctic Science 31, no. 3 (2019): 133–38, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102019000099.

The following year, even more. Graham Readfearn, “‘Everyone Should Be Concerned’: Antarctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Levels Ever Recorded,” Guardian (UK), March 4, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/04/everyone-should-be-concerned-antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-lowest-levels-ever-recorded.

collapse of colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea. Peter T. Fretwell et al., “Record Low 2022 Antarctic Sea Ice Led to Catastrophic Breeding Failure of Emperor Penguins,” Communications Earth and Environment 4 (2023): 273, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00927-x.

most detailed study to date. Stéphanie Jenouvrier et al., “The Paris Agreement Objectives Will Likely Halt Future Declines of Emperor Penguins,” Global Change Biology 26, no. 3 (2019): 1170–84, doi:10.1111/gcb.14864.

2023 study of their genetics. Sally C. Y. Lau et al., “Genomic Evidence for West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse during the Last Interglacial Period” (preprint, January 31, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.29.525778).

number coming to nest. Megan A. Cimino et al., “Projected Asymmetric Response of Adélie Penguins to Antarctic Climate Change,” Scientific Reports 6 (2016): 28785, doi:10.1038/srep28785.

chinstrap colonies. Noah Strycker et al., “A Global Population Assessment of the Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica),” Scientific Reports 10 (2020): 19474, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76479-3.

Since 2000, the krill catch. Carolyn J. Hogg et al., “Protect the Antarctic Peninsula—Before It’s Too Late,” Nature 586 (2020): 496–99, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02939-5.

ships may be competing with local wildlife. George M. Watters et al., “Long-Term Observations from Antarctica Demonstrate That Mismatched Scales of Fisheries Management and Predator-Prey Interaction Lead to Erroneous Conclusions about Precaution,” Scientific Reports 10 (2020): 2314, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59223-9.

CHAPTER 4

A 1969 book about sharks. Thomas H. Lineaweaver and Richard H. Backus, The Natural History of Sharks (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1969), 58.

A 1984 report named them. Leonard J. V. Compagno, FAO Species Catalogue, vol. 4, Sharks of the World, pt. 2, Carcharhiniformes (Rome: United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 1984).

These large sharks that were once so plentiful. Chelsey N. Young and John K. Carlson, “The Biology and Conservation Status of the Oceanic Whitetip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) and Future Directions for Recovery,” Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 30 (2020): 293–312, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-020-09601-3.

one-third of all known shark species. Nicholas K. Dulvy et al., “Over-fishing Drives Over One-Third of All Sharks and Rays toward a Global Extinction Crisis,” Current Biology 31, no. 21 (2021): 4773–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.062.

declined by 71 per cent. Nathan Pacoureau et al., “Half a Century of Global Decline in Oceanic Sharks and Rays,” Nature 589 (2021): 567–71, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03173-9.

number of sharks killed. Ian Campbell, personal communication, April 2023.

In 2018, observers. Gonzalo Mucientes et al., “Unreported Discards of Internationally Protected Pelagic Sharks in a Global Fishing Hotspot Are Potentially Large,” Biological Conservation 269 (2022): 109534, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109534.

Now researchers are using the publicly. Global Fishing Watch, https://globalfishingwatch.org/.

One year’s worth of satellite positioning data. David A. Kroodsma et al., “Tracking the Global Footprint of Fisheries,” Science 359, no. 6378 (2018): 904–8, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao5646. Another study of global fishing used reconstructed fish catches to work out the percentage of the ocean fished and found it to have reached 90 per cent in the latter part of the twentieth century; see David Tickler et al., “Far from Home: Distance Patterns of Global Fishing Fleets,” Science Advances 4, no. 8 (2018): eaar3279, doi.10.1126/sciadv.aar327.

Combining satellite data. The study divided the ocean into one-degree grids, with sides of sixty-eight miles, which is the average length of an industrial longline. Nuno Queiroz et al., “Global Spatial Risk Assessment of Sharks under the Footprint of Fisheries,” Nature 572 (2019): 461–66, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1444-4.

estimate for the annual global death toll. Boris Worm et al., “Global Catches, Exploitation Rates, and Rebuilding Options for Sharks,” Marine Policy 40 (2013): 194–204, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.12.034.

number of daggernose sharks. Rosangela Lessa et al., “Close to Extinction? The Collapse of the Endemic Daggernose Shark (Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus) off Brazil,” Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016): 70–81, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2016.04.003.

after 534 days, the eleven-inch male. Steven Benjamins et al., “First Confirmed Complete Incubation of a Flapper Skate (Dipturus intermedius) Egg in Captivity,” Fish Biology 99, no. 3 (2021): 1150–54, doi:10.1111/jfb.14816.

Keystone predators. Robert T. Paine, “Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity,” American Naturalist 100, no. 910 (1966):65–75, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2459379.

The most controversial investigation. Ransom A. Myers et al., “Cascading Effects of the Loss of Apex Predatory Sharks from a Coastal Ocean,” Science 315, no. 5820 (2007):315, 1846–50, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138657.

laid bare in a 2016 study. R. Dean Grubbs et al., “Critical Assessment and Ramifications of a Purported Marine Trophic Cascade,” Scientific Reports 6 (2016):20970, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20970.

Since 2000, marine biologists. Neil Hammerschlag et al., “Disappearance of White Sharks Leads to the Novel Emergence of an Allopatric Apex Predator, the Sevengill Shark,” Scientific Reports 9 (2019):1908, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37576-6.

Their anxiety levels dropped. Neil Hammerschlag et al., “Loss of an Apex Predator in the Wild Induces Physiological and Behavioural Changes in Prey,” Biology Letters 18, no. 1 (2022): 20210476, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0476.

Great white sharks had been scared. Alison V. Towner et al., “Fear at the Top: Killer Whale Predation Drives White Shark Absence at South Africa’s Largest Aggregation Site,” African Journal of Marine Science 44, no. 2 (2022): 139–52, https://doi.org/10.2989/1814232X.2022.2066723.

The arrival of orcas. Tamlyn M. Engelbrecht et al., “Running Scared: When Predators Become Prey,” Ecosphere Naturalist 10, no. 1 (2019): e02531, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2531.

a team of diving scientists. Robert J. Nowicki et al., “Loss of Predation Risk from Apex Predators Can Exacerbate Marine Tropicalization Caused by Extreme Climatic Events,” Journal of Animal Ecology 90, no. 9 (2021): 2041–52, doi:10.1111/1365-2656.13424.

Meanwhile, the Java stingaree. Julia Constance et al., “Urolophus javanicus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2023,” e.T60095A229337053. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/60095/229337053. Accessed on 23 January 2024.

A 2020 study gathered. Julia M. Lawson et al., “Extinction Risk and Conservation of Critically Endangered Angel Sharks in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea,” ICES Journal of Marine Science 77, no. 1 (2020): 12–29, doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsz222.

other important strongholds. Joanna Barker et al., “The Distribution, Ecology and Predicted Habitat Use of the Critically Endangered Angelshark (Squatina squatina) in Coastal Waters of Wales and the Central Irish Sea,” Fish Biology 101, no. 3 (2020): 640–58, doi:10.1111/jfb.15133.

conservationists, now armed. Joanna Barker et al., Wales Angelshark Action Plan (London: Zoological Society of London, 2020); Cat Gordon et al., Mediterranean Angel Sharks: Regional Action Plan (United Kingdom: The Shark Trust, 2019); Joanna Barker et al., Angelshark Action Plan for the Canary Islands (London: Zoological Society of London, 2016).

3 per cent of the global ocean. Christine A. Ward-Paige and Boris Worm, “Global Evaluation of Shark Sanctuaries,” Global Environmental Change 47 (2017): 174–89, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.09.005.

survey of scuba divers’ opinions. Ibid.

Close to three hundred thousand large pelagic sharks were likely caught. Brendan D. Shea et al., “Quantifying Longline Bycatch Mortality for Pelagic Sharks in Western Pacific Shark Sanctuaries,” Science Advances 9, no. 33 (2023): eadg3527, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg3527.

size of an individual reserve. Median size of marine protected areas globally is 3.3 square kilometres; Central Park in New York is 3.4 square kilometres. Lisa Boonzaier and Daniel Pauly, “Marine Protection Targets: An Updated Assessment of Global Progress,” Oryx 50, no. 1 (2015): 1–9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0030605315000848.

catches of endangered elasmobranchs. Manfredi Di Lorenzo et al.. “Small-Scale Fisheries Catch More Threatened Elasmobranchs inside Partially Protected Areas than in Unprotected Areas,” Nature Communications 13 (2022): 4381, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32035-3.

2021 study conducted in waters off Florida. Nicholas M. Whitney et al., “Connecting Post-Release Mortality to the Physiological Stress Response of Large Coastal Sharks in a Commercial Longline Fishery,” PLoS One 16, no. 9 (2021): e0255673, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255673.

Sea trials in a small-scale. Philip D. Doherty et al., “Efficacy of a Novel Shark Bycatch Mitigation Device in a Tuna Longline Fishery,” Current Biology 32, no. 22 (2022): R1260–61, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.003.

Illuminating gill nets. Jesse F. Senko et al., “Net Illumination Reduces Fisheries Bycatch, Maintains Catch Value, and Increases Operational Efficiency,” Current Biology 32, no. 4 (2022): 911–18, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.12.050.

Scientists in Hong Kong. Diego Cardeñosa et al., “CITES-Listed Sharks Remain among the Top Species in the Contemporary Fin Trade,” Conservation Letters 11, no. 4 (2018): e12457, https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12457.

A turning point came in 2022. Diego Cardeñosa et al., “Two Thirds of Species in a Global Shark Fin Trade Hub Are Threatened with Extinction: Conservation Potential of International Trade Regulations for Coastal Sharks,” Conservation Letters 15, no. 5 (2022): e12910, https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12910.