Outdoors column: Shark expert shares thoughts on flurry of attacks in Carolinas

Charles Farmer III literally wrote the book on sharks in South Carolina. Really, Farmer is the author of “Sharks of South Carolina.”

Farmer first tangled with sharks as a child in the Bluffton area in the late 1950s, and then became very familiar with them during a 36-year career studying marine resources with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

A year before retiring from S.C. DNR in 2005, Farmer poured his depth of shark knowledge into a book, Sharks of South Carolina.

During his career, Farmer became a shark expert through scientific collections and study along with numerous field observations in the estuary, near-shore and offshore waters of the Palmetto State.