Chasing Shadows Book Cover Ret Talbot is an award-winning independent journalist and writer who covers ocean issues and animals at the intersection of science and sustainability. His most recent book is Chasing Shadows, written with shark biologist Greg Skomal. At its heart, it is a conservation success story about restoring an apex predator to an ecosystem through the eyes of the scientist who quite unexpectedly found himself in the middle of it all. Learn more about Chasing Shadows.

Hear an interview with Ret and Greg discussing Chasing Shadows with Brendan, host at the History Nerds United podcast.

Ret Drinking Kava in Fiji Talbot's work can also be found in publications such as Discover Magazine, National Geographic, Mongabay, Ocean Geographic, Coral Magazine, and Yale Environment 360. Talbot frequently guest lectures at both secondary schools and colleges and universities, and he hosts the Midcoast Writers Group, which meets regularly in Rockland, Maine. Talbot lives on the coast of Maine with his wife, scientific illustrator Karen Talbot.


Lobster Lake Beaver Dam

"You must not miss this fantastic book."
-Advance praise for Chasing Shadows from New York Times bestselling author Sy Montgomery

"[Greg Skomal] and journalist Talbot describe the shark for the splendid creature that it is....Fans of Jaws and Shark Week will love this book, but it’s also a compelling read for anyone interested in oceans, wildlife, conservation, or scientific adventures. An excellent title for readers who’ve ever been at the ocean’s edge and wondered what was out there."
-Advance praise for Chasing Shadows from Library Journal (starred review)

"Vividly written, gorgeously developed, and as terrifyingly suspenseful as a dorsal fin slicing across the surface, this as-told-to adventure by Skomal and Talbot is far more than a brilliant autobiography of a marine biologist, on the same rolling decks as Eugenie Clark, Jacques Costeau, and Sylvia Earle, because Chasing Shadows is also the story of our profound and critical cultural relationship with sharks and how the controversial return of an apex predator to the North Atlantic might just be the conservation story that we all desperately need to read right now, at sea and on land."
-Advance praise for Chasing Shadows from Richard J. King, visiting professor at Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA and the author of Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick and Ocean Bestiary

"Writer Ret Talbot presents an unflinching portrait of the seafood industry in his blog, The Good Catch…"
The Food Safety Blog by iPura

"An exhilarating and illuminating ode to the ocean’s most misunderstood gangsters."
-Advance praise for Chasing Shadows from Emily Voigt, author of The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World’s Most Coveted Fish, winner of the 2017 NASW Science in Society Journalism Award and a PEN America Literary Award finalist

"Asking tough questions and holding rhetoric to the fire, this commentator adds a level of passion and personal insight much appreciated in the community of seafood."
Nick Aster, Triple Pundit

Maine Harbor

Please visit the websites of the following professional organizations to which Ret belongs and the Midcoast Maine independent booksellers Ret loves: