"The most formidable predator in the fish world is being wiped out by the predator that fears them unnecessarily – man."
 |
Stopping the Shark Finners:
A Bwana Doc Adventure by D.R. Schneider www.bwanadoc.com
book review by Peter M. Fitzpatrick
Heroism, like beauty, could be said to lie in the eye of the beholder. Bwana Doc is a an environmental activist of great wealth and skill who skirts both foreign trade interests as well as Interpol and the U.S. Navy in the pursuit of protecting marine life. In this second volume of the series, Bwana Doc targets the mass slaughter of sharks by Chinese interests intent on using only the fins, leaving the rest of the animal to die a slow and painful death. French fashion interests that want to use shark skin or "shagreen" for a line of shoes are also in his sights. Working with a marine biologist he has independently funded, Doc develops a species of algae-based cyanobacteria that will harmlessly infect marine life, but will cause illness and impotence if said life is ingested by humans. Using his fleet of ships, a super-stealth airplane, and even a submarine he has stolen from the Argentine military, the hero of the story secretly seeds the drying shark fins before they are ingested as shark fin soup. The result causes widespread illness, crashing the market and saving the sharks.
The author's passion for marine life and his indictment of commercial interests that would plunder and destroy it, shine through in his main character development. Along the way, interesting facts about shark species are discussed in detail. He takes the time to show the motivations of those who would ignorantly upset the ecological balance in pursuit of profits, but also portrays the purely evil in his depiction of deep sea pirates. His theme is the prevention of species extinction and even the possibility of "geocide," the possible destruction of the planet through ecological ignorance. His hero must buck almost every legal and military enforcement authority to achieve his objectives. Fortunately, his motto is to harm no living being, tempering the extremism. But the stakes are extreme, and the grey areas between what is legal and what is moral are intelligently and grippingly explored.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review