The Sea My Hunting Ground

The Sea My Hunting Ground, first published in 1958, is Anthony Watkins' account of his adventures as a commercial hunter of the basking shark ( Cetorhinus maximus), the world's second largest fish (after the whale shark). The book opens in the late 1930s with the author, no longer able to endure a dull clerkship in London, beginning a small fishing business on the west coast of Scotland. His prey, the basking shark, could be 30 feet long and weigh as much as 6 tons. Watkins recounts an early misadventure when, after harpooning a shark from his dinghy, the giant fish carried him 100 miles out to sea. But learning from his mistakes, Watkins gradually develops a successful fishing business catching and processing these now protected animals (protected in the UK and a number of other countries). Included are 15 pages of illustrations and 4 maps.