SPORTS/RECREATION/OUTDOOR ACTIVITY

FIELD & STREAM, America’s largest outdoor sports magazine, celebrates the outdoor experience with great stories, compelling photography, and sound advice while honoring the traditions hunters and fishermen have passed down for generations.

A great collection of bear attack true stories for hikers, hunters, and all who venture into the outdoors. Bears are one of nature’s apex predators, gentle and fuzzy to watch from a distance, fierce and unpredictable when aroused—and then it’s too late for humans to escape a dangerous, fearsome, or fatal encounter. In this collection, we gather the most thrilling and frightening bear-attack stories of the past few decades. Grizzlies, brown bears, black bears—and their unfortunate encounters with humans. This is what happens—When Bears Attack. Joseph B. Healy takes a closer look at some of the notable bear attacks of recent history in order to determine their causes, evaluate what happened, and appreciate the raw power—and danger—of mother nature. He tells tales of hikers enjoying weekend camping trips as well as workers going about their daily routines. Follow along as the victims’ lives are disrupted by bears, and see how survivors were forced to think and act in the moment to stay alive. As modern life continues to encroach on the wilderness, encounters between bears and humans will only increase. Learn about the outcome of these feral clashes in When Bears Attack.

The story of the USS Indianapolis is well-known. After delivering crucial components of the atomic bomb that would level Hiroshima in 1945, the Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the South China Sea. Of the nearly 1,200 men aboard, 900 survived the torpedoing, spilling into the sea. White tip sharks began attacking the next morning and after four days only 300 sailors were alive to rescue. Less famous are the many stories of ships sinking in shark-infested waters with gruesome results. Such as the Cape San Juan, a US troop transport ship that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Pacific Ocean near the Fiji Islands; nearly 700 of the survivors were killed by sharks. Or the HMS Birkenhead, which sunk off Danger Point, South Africa, in 1852, resulting in 440 shark-related fatalities. In 1927, the luxury Italian cruise liner Principessa Maldafa sank ninety miles off the coast of Albrohos Island while heading to Porto Seguro, Brazil. Nearly 300 who survived the wreck were killed by sharks. In 1909, the French steamer La Seyne collided with British India Steamship Co. liner Onda near Singapore, twenty-six miles from land. One hundred and one people were eventually killed by sharks. In the water, human intelligence is no match for a shark’s brutal, destructive instincts. Sharks are born to kill and eat: They detect distress, smell blood—and attack. Marine disasters such as those above result in humans becoming prey, floating in inner space as shadowy sharks swim below, ready to attack. Helpless to save yourself—floating and waiting, watching the malevolent creatures circle, knowing what will happen . . . a sudden swirl of water, a cloud of blood, the searing pain . . . until there is no more. This is unspeakable horror

Here is great angling writing from the best writers in the business—from Tom McGuane to John McPhee to Lefty Kreh. With proceeds going to FishAmerica, to help keep waters and fish healthy, and the Future Fisherman Foundation for education programs for children, these articles include Joan Wulff’s look at the stages in an angler’s lifetime; John McPhee’s passage on our country’s “Founding Fish”–the American Shad; Dave Barry's not-so-reverent take on fishing; Dave DiBenedetto on migrating stripers; Monte Burke on record bass; President Jimmy Carter on his youth; and Ted Williams on the environment. And there are many more, every one a joy to read.