At its heart, Chasing Shadows is a conservation success story. From our first meeting, the two of us—Greg Skomal, the scientist, and Ret Talbot, the science writer—knew this was the story we wanted to tell. We were intent on sharing the largely untold and remarkable story of the return of the great white shark to the western North Atlantic in numbers not seen in more than half a century. But we also knew that it was a story with some baked-in challenges that New England beachgoers, beach managers, and public-safety professionals are still struggling to come to terms with.
Not everyone views the great white shark’s return to the beaches of Cape Cod and the rocky coast of Maine and beyond as a success. There is, and there will continue to be, conflict. Beaches have been closed. People have been bitten. Two have died. As we set out to research and write this book, we knew we had a needle to thread.
