Author John Lahm has written a novel, Bad to the Bone, about the arrival of a new species of shark that developed due to human medical waste seeping down through the Florida aquifer and coming out in offshore submarine springs.

“The novel has always been embedded in my mind,” he said.

Lahm has long had interests in events related to his novel. He successfully petitioned the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to approve a historical marker nomination for the Glomar Explorer, a famed spy ship built by the CIA in Chester using funds donated by Howard Hughes. The marker is outside the Independence Seaport Museum.

In addition, he contacted the United States Board on Geographic Names’ Advisory Committee on Undersea Features after the research vessel NR-1 discovered a submarine spring. He asked that the spring be named the NR-1 Hole, a request that was granted. Today, all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ocean charts include the NR-1 Hole.

“They were my main interests,” Lahm said of the Glomar and NR-1. “And the novel was cool.”