In this globe-spanning adventure, environmental journalist Juliet Eilperin investigates the ways different individuals and cultures relate to the ocean's top predator. Along the way, she reminds us why, after millions of years, sharks remain among nature's most awe-inspiring creatures. From Belize to South Africa, from Shanghai to Bimini, sharks are still the object of an obsession that may eventually lead to their extinction. This is why movie stars and professional athletes go shark hunting in Miami, and why shark's fin soup remains a coveted status symbol in China. Yet people and sharks can exist alongside one another: surfers tolerate their presence off Cape Town and ecotourists swim with sharks that locals in the Yucatǹ no longer have to hunt. With a reporter's instinct for a good story and a scientist's curiosity, Eilperin offers us an up-close understanding of these extraordinary creatures in the most illuminating shark encounter you're likely to find outside a steel cage.--From publisher description.