LETTERS 



Swimming with Sharks 



Steven G. Wilson's infor- 

 mative overview of the 

 whale shark [ L 'The Biggest 

 Fish, 4/06] points out the 

 little we know, and the lot 

 we don't know, about the 

 largest of all fishes. Mr. 

 Wilson notes that the ani- 

 mal is threatened by fishing 

 and boat strikes, but those 

 who would protect the 

 whale shark must also be 

 alert to the potential for 

 harmful effects from the 

 growth of whale-shark 

 ecotourism. For example, 

 the thousands of people 

 who now swim with whale 

 sharks could end up driving 

 them away from their feed- 

 ing grounds if the practice 

 isn't studied and regulated. 



Because whale sharks 

 range so widely, regional 

 studies of them are limited. 

 What is needed, if we are 

 to avoid losing these mag- 

 nificent animals from the 

 planet, is an integrated, 

 global study of the species. 

 Robert E. Hueter 

 Mote Marine Laboratory 

 Sarasota, Florida 



Steven Wilson's article 

 prompts me to ask a ques- 

 tion I've always wondered 

 about: Couldn't a person 

 be sucked in by a whale 

 shark and become pinned 

 to its gills? 

 Richard W. Crews 

 Encinitas, California 



Steven G.Wilson 

 RJ PI II S: Robert E. Hueter 

 raises excellent points 

 about ecotourism. To 

 avoid or mitigate the prob- 

 lem, authorities in Western 

 Australia have developed 

 stringent guidelines for 

 managing human activi- 



ties around whale sharks. 



Beyond limiting or ban- 

 ning their harvest and redi- 

 recting communities to the 

 regulated and nonconsump- 

 tive use of whale sharks, we 

 need to study the move- 

 ment patterns of the species 

 and the oceanographic fac- 

 tors that control them. Such 

 work is critical if we are to 

 conserve and manage whale 

 shark populations and un- 

 derstand longer-term threats 

 such as those posed by glob- 

 al climate change. 



I think the fear expressed 

 by Richard W. Crews cross- 



es the mind ot anyone who 

 swims with a whale shark. 

 Although a person would 

 certainly fit inside the 

 mouth of the adult animal, 

 I have never heard any re- 

 port of such an accident. A 

 whale shark would probably 

 avoid ingesting an object as 

 large as a person; in fact, 

 when a person swims just 

 in front of a whale shark, 

 the animal usually responds 

 by closing its mouth or al- 

 tering its course. 



Love Those Dioramas! 



Although the panorama, 

 diorama, and cyclorama 

 were critical to the 



development of the mu- 

 seum-habitat diorama, as 

 described by Stephen 

 Christopher Quinn in his 

 article, "The Worlds Behind 

 the Glass" [4/06], emphasis 

 needs be put on the cyclo- 

 rama of the 1880s. "Cyclo- 

 rama" was the name fre- 

 quently given to a form of 

 the panorama, a borderless 

 painting arranged in a circle 

 to mimic the impression of 

 a view seen completely 

 around. The cyclorama em- 

 bellished the illusion with 

 faux terrain, or artificial 

 figures and objects, which 



were added both in front of 

 the picture and blended in 

 to it — precisely the "tie-in" 

 of three-dimensional fore- 

 ground with painted and 

 curved background that Mr. 

 Quinn describes in his arti- 

 cle. In a remarkably propi- 

 tious alignment of circum- 

 stances, nineteenth-century 

 advances in both taxidermy 

 and pictorial entertainment 

 converged in the 1880s to 

 inform the museum diora- 

 mas that still delight and 

 instruct us today. 

 Kevin /. Avery 

 The Metropolitan Museum 



of Art 

 New York, Neti> York 



Before we met, both my 

 wife and I often visited the 

 American Museum of 

 Natural History in New 

 York City. My favorite 

 area was the Akeley Hall 

 of African Mammals. This 

 past March we visited 

 New York for the first 

 time in thirty years. Natu- 

 rally, our first stop was the 

 American Museum. Ake- 

 ley Hall was just as I re- 

 membered it — awesome! 

 On returning home, we 

 found the latest issue of 

 Natural History, with 

 Stephen Christopher 

 Quinn's article. It brought 

 back memories both dis- 

 tant and current. 

 Al Westerfield 

 Crossville, Tennessee 



Worse than Fallout? 



Mary Mycio's Endpaper 

 "Chernobyl Paradox" 

 [4/06] should have been 

 your lead article. People 

 have been destroying the 

 natural world for eons, but 

 showing so clearly and on 

 such a grand scale that the 

 human presence is so much 

 worse than even the ra- 

 dioactive isotopes cesium- 

 137 and strontium-90 

 should be a clincher in any 

 environmental debate. 

 Each new suburb, mall, 

 and parking lot is more 

 damaging to our world 

 than the worst nuclear 

 meltdown in history. 

 Richard S. Blake 

 East Falmouth, Massachusetts 



Underground Heroes 



Soil bacteria and fungi are 

 the mechanistic workhors- 

 es that drive nutrient cy- 

 cling in diverse terrestrial 

 and aquatic ecosystems. 

 (Continued on page 60) 



"I call it 'Astronomy Beyond the I isible-light Spectrum.' " 



12 



NATURAL HISTORY June 2006 



