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.