A SHARK-DIVER'S COMPANION
Some divers hope never to meet a shark. Others spend every dive hoping for the opposite. I'm of the second persuasion. I want to see sharks and I want to see them within an arm's length, because if they are any further away I won't get good photographs. They are fascinating creatures and a close encounter always gets the adrenaline pumping.
     Too many books dwell on sharks' ability to eat people. It's like reading about buses ploughing into bus queues - it can happen but, thankfully, rarely does.
     The BBC Shark Watcher's Handbook is a sensibly written book by well-informed authors. Although laced with some classic examples of good shark photography, this is not for the armchair enthusiast. It is in fact a diver's guide to sharks and where to see them.
     The volume comes in three sections. The first 80-odd pages are full of general information about shark-diving, attacks, photography, general biology and conservation. This makes an interesting read but it is the other two sections that guarantees this volume a place on my bookshelf.
     First, three pages on shark identification is followed by a 48-page catalogue of common species. The illustrations are clear and included is a check-list, descriptions of lifestyle and distribution, and locations where divers commonly enjoy encounters.
     Finally, 146 pages are devoted to a very useful shark-watcher's directory which, assisted by world maps, lists virtually all the places where sightings are almost guaranteed. I dip-tested this information and none of the places I know to be good were omitted.
     You will recognise sections that have been influenced heavily by parts of other volumes, but the authors have had the good sense to borrow from the best. Well done Mark Carwardine and Ken Watterson. This book is a useful initial source of information, and post-dive it can clarify exactly what you have seen. It's a perfect companion for every travelling diver who refuses to believe that sharks eat people.
John Bantin

CRUDE BUT EFFECTIVE
Ever wished you could imitate the type of logbook kept by divers who keep really detailed records? Not easy, but in Anglesey Wrecks and Reefs you'll find the next best thing.
     It's only a small book, and at £14.95 you might expect something a bit flashier. The hand-drawn pictures look as if they have been lifted from someone's post-dive doodles and the underwater photographs are only just about acceptable.
     But that is what makes this book so appealing. The authors, Andy Shears and Scott Waterman, have almost 30 years' diving behind them and it shows in how they describe the sites. These are not the descriptions of some artist or photographer who has never dived the location.
     The pair detail 25 wreck, 12 reef and 12 shore dives in a "this is how I wish my logbook would look" style. Unlike other guide-books I've read over the years, there is little waffle.
     No pages are wasted on fish-ID photos, stories of local customs and guides to hotels and restaurants - all information available elsewhere and which shouldn't pad out dive guides.
     In this book, where issues such as local weather are mentioned, they are specifically related to the diving.
     The descriptions of the sites cover what you need to know and no more. For example, all the wrecks have sections devoted to orientation, planning and just enough history.
     This book bristles with enthusiasm and a desire to explore. It might be a smart version of their logbooks, but isn't that what you need?
Brendan O'Brien

An innocent in the digital age
If you're busy, progress can pass you by. I am aware that shooting film and handling transparencies causes some people to regard me as a dinosaur. Well, these young computer nerds might know how to do all sorts of clever things, but would they recognise a good picture if they saw it?
     Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper on wet plaster. I bet he would have done it digitally if he could. But then, he was a genius, and would have got hold of a book like Digital Imaging for the Underwater Photographer and learned all about how to do it.
     This is a book written for me. It even uses a big, bold typeface because the publisher knows my eyesight is not what was. It explains itself in simple, easy-to-understand language and, blimey, it even tells me how I can work from my original slides. The key is that the authors are from my generation. They know the problem for us wet-film tyrannosauruses in the veggie restaurant that is the digital world.
     It's all about computer applications for photo enhancement and presentation. (I copied that from the cover.) It is aimed specifically at those like me who have shot film successfully and want to "get it into the computer".
     I suppose it is just as useful if your pictures are already on digital files, but then, how would I know? If you are that far into the subject you probably don't need this book.
     There are lots of photographs that can be compared, so you know exactly what is being talked about, and there are lots of representations of what the tools look like on your computer screen. The book includes step-by-step techniques for Adobe Photoshop software. Hey, I've just had a close look at my computer, and I've got that!
     Note to the editor: I've nicked the review copy!
John Bantin

THE TRUTH BEHIND JAWS
The author of Jaws scared the wits out of millions of readers worldwide. Fear of sharks was further energised by the movie, under the deft direction of Steven Spielberg. Neither would need to apologise for their creative ability to scare people. That's show-biz.
     Now a new book by Peter Benchley called Shark Trouble gives the author a chance to set forth what he has learned about sharks and recount his real-life experiences in the sea with them.
     His frequent articles in National Geographic have already revealed his range of careful research and commitment to truth in reporting.
     Sharks are in trouble today. Much of Peter Benchley's time and energy has for some years since Jaws been directed towards shark conservation. He is a spokesman for a number of marine-conservation organisations, including WildAid and the Oceans Program of Environmental Defence.
     In Shark Trouble he addresses the reality of shark attack by asking: "Who is the predator?" He answers his own question with startling statistics: "Éfor every human being killed by a shark, roughly 10 million sharks are killed by humans - and mostly for their fins."
     He succinctly addresses the "shark fever" generated by the media in 2001, when there was a slump in dramatic news and the media needed grist. An accident to a boy whose arm was bitten off in a shark attack started them on their roll, even though shark attack incidents had declined since the previous year. "Castro Trained Killer Sharks to Attack US" headlined one weekly paper.
     Benchley explores the appeal of "monster" reporting and the deeply rooted fear of sharks that afflicts the public.
     He defuses it with the reality of shark behaviour, and further touches on the fragility of the ocean environment, the vital part that sharks have in the food chain and the stability of that environment.
     That leads, of course, to the critical damage being done today by overfishing. The shockingly wanton, wasteful and massive destruction of sharks for their fins alone is a most telling example.
     Benchley's own experiences on camera for the National Geographic Society and - for many years - with this writer for ABC and ESPN are recounted with the dramatic skill for which he is well known.
     Much of the book is given to presenting well-informed, accurate information on dangerous marine animals, sea snakes, barracudas, moray eels and other classic but inoffensive "villains".
     Chapters entitled "How to Avoid Shark Attack", "Swimming Safely In the Sea" and a final practical summing-up, "Okay, So What Can We Do?" provide no-nonsense advice for readers, both hopefuls and seasoned divers, who wish to enjoy the sea.
     The author sums up his aim with the book: "I'll try to pass on what I have learned about sharks and about keeping safe in the sea, to show you what sharks are like and why they don't want to hurt you or eat you, why they would like nothing better than to be left alone to do what Nature has programmed them to do: swim, eat and make little sharks."
     The aim is well met and excellent reading as well. This book is of real importance to the diving public and all who are concerned about the health of the world's oceans.
Stan Waterman

THE HUNT FOR U-297
Devoted wreck-divers will find this new booklet of great interest. In just 32 well-illustrated pages this slim volume, called simply U-297, captures all the fascination of wreck research and concludes with the divers' triumph in finding a long-lost U-boat - just where they thought it was.
     The submarine was only feet away from the shot dropped by Orkney divers Kevin Heath and Ian Trumpess into 87m, some 16 miles to the west of Orkney. The boat was not where both German and British records wrongly placed her, some 36 miles away off Cape Wrath.
     Author Richard Skinner is not a diver, but he has obviously collaborated closely with Heath and Trumpess and carried out a mass of research of his own to produce this detailed account.
     The first and last voyage of U-297 started when Oberleutnant Wolfgang Aldegarmann and his crew of 49 sailed from a U-boat base in Norway on their first fighting patrol, with orders to blockade the entrance to Scapa Flow.
     On 6 December, 1944, a different U-boat sank a British destroyer, and an RAF Sunderland flying boat of Coastal Command was called out to join the hunt for the culprit. Instead it found and depth-charged U-297, which was quietly snorkelling along, miles from the scene.
     The damage done to her was clear when Ian Trumpess dived to the wreck, and this excellent booklet contains a mass of photographs from his video footage.
Kendall McDonald

A diving pioneer
It was perhaps because I was in the Royal Navy myself - even though as a Hostilities Only (HO) rating - that I found Harry Wardle's autobiographical book Dive Navy so immediately arresting.
     Harry's long and exciting naval career, as detailed in this book, falls into two distinct parts. The first is a graphic account of his life above and below decks through one of the Navy's most dangerous and desperate World War Two times. The other is his intimate and revealing story of post-war Navy diving and the dramatic advances made, sometimes under his command, in diving to great depths.
     Lancashire-born Wardle joined the boys' training ship HMS Ganges, home for 2000 boys at any one time, in 1935, when he was 16 years old. Between 1936 and 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, he served in ships in Gibraltar, then in southern Ireland, and on the China stations during the Sino-Japanese war.
     During the last war he served on destroyers - escorting convoys, hunting submarines, evacuating troops and seeing fearsome action in seas off Norway, France, Greece, Crete, Libya, Malta and the Far East.
     Of the nine destroyers in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in 1939, his was the only one to survive!
     In 1945 his career moved into diving, and in 1948, on board the newly commissioned HMS Reclaim as Senior Diving Officer, his team captured the world deep-diving record from the Americans with a dive to 163m off Scotland. This record was later extended to 182m in a Norwegian fjord.
     These dives were, of course, carried out using oxy-helium mixtures, which had caused some cases of convulsions and unconsciousness during early trials because of oxygen toxicity, the causes of which had yet to be identified. Yet, surprisingly, all RN divers were trained to dive to 90m on air when qualifying.
     Harry started in the Navy as a Second Class Boy and ended up as a Lieutenant Commander and Deputy Superintendent of Diving at HMS Vernon. He retired in 1958 after 23 years' exemplary service.
Bernard Eaton

Have to admit it's getting better
It's always nice to be in at the beginning of something new, though I doubt whether author Nigel Clarke entirely appreciates my interest in his work, The Shipwreck Guide to Dorset and Lyme Bay For Divers and Skippers.
     Indeed, he wrote to me to say that he thought some of my criticisms in Diver of the first edition of his book were unfair. I think not. Even so, it is clear that Mr Clarke has taken a great deal more trouble with his research for this second edition.
     This is a vastly improved booklet. Photographs are included, the number of wrecks is increased from 120 to 203, and the pagination is up from 39 to 108.
     Also included are local divers' views about their "most interesting" wreck and their "most disliked" wreck. Top five of the most interesting list are: HMS M2, HMS Buccaneer, the Salsette, St Dunstan and Kyarra.
     And top five of the most disliked are the Aeolian Sky ("tangled mess"), Pomeranian ("blown apart, silty"), Marguerite ("heap of junk"), Gibe Ham ("lots of nets and poor viz"), and, popping up again, the M2 ("too many dive boats").
     However, I hope Mr Clarke will not think me unfair if once again I point out more improvements he might consider for the third edition.
     He should include more detail about how ships listed were lost, and far more diving detail. Take his treatment, for example, of the Free French sub-chaser Carnelian, a good dive in Dorset waters. Mr Clarke merely notes that she foundered during a storm in1943. The loss of the Carnelian is a dramatic story that any diver should know before he or she dives her.
     And they would also want to know what they will find when they reach the bottom in 32m.
Henry Kay