May 17, 2010
In this unusually entertaining and nuanced investigation into global fisheries, New York Times seafood writer Greenberg examines our historical relationship with wild fish. In the early 2000s, Greenberg, reviving his childhood fishing habit, discovered that four fish—salmon, tuna, bass, and cod—"dominate the modern seafood market" and that "each is an archive of a particular, epochal shift": e.g., cod, fished farther offshore, "herald the era of industrial fishing"; and tuna, "the stateless fish, difficult to regulate and subject to the last great gold rush of wild food... challeng us to reevaluate whether fish are at their root expendable seafood or wildlife desperately in need of our compassion." He found that as wild fisheries are overexploited, prospective fish farmers are likely to ignore practical criteria for domestication—hardiness, freely breeding, and needing minimal care—instead picking traditionally eaten wild-caught species like sea bass "a failure in every category." Greenberg contends that ocean life is essential to feeding a growing human population and that rational humans should seek to sustainably farm fish that can "stand up to industrial-sized husbandry" while maintaining functioning wild food systems.
Starred review from May 15, 2010
An award-winning food journalist brilliantly dissects the relationship between humans and the four fish that dominate the seafood market.
Greenberg (Leaving Katya, 2002) addresses how nations can make smarter choices about managing resources and how the individual seafood-lover can support those choices at the dinner table, but he also examines a series of smaller issues: how farmed salmon—an industry badly in need of reform—has inspired a taste for its wild ancestor, why tilapia has suddenly shown up in the market, how the rage for sushi poses new regulatory challenges, why taming sea bass makes little sense. This readable account of our hunt for wild fish and our attempt to domesticate them for consumption will remind many readers of Mark Kurlansky's bestseller Cod (1997), and for good reason. Kurlansky is cited as an authority and even appears as a character in Greenberg's fish story, a pleasing amalgam of memoir, travelogue, history, scientific inquiry, plea for reform and even tasting menu. In colorfully anecdotal, appealing prose, Greenberg focuses on our pursuit of salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna. Each represents an evolutionary step for humans farther out into the ocean. Taken together, they recapitulate humankind's historic attempt at mastery of the sea,"either through the management of a wild system, through the domestication and farming of individual species, or through the outright substitution of one species for another." The author offers prescriptions for managing marine ecosystems and a wise set of principles to guide us forward with domestication, but the tone is never preachy. The narrative is grounded in common sense and anchored by first-rate, on-scene reporting from the Yukon and Mekong Rivers, Lake Bardawil in the Sinai Peninsula and the waters off the coasts of Long Island, Greece, Hawaii and the Shetland Islands.
Hugely informative, sincere and infectiously curious and enthusiastic.
(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
July 1, 2010
Growing up in Greenwich, CT, Greenberg became familiar with the fish in Long Island Sound and looked forward to the succession of species from the early spring flounder to mackerel to blackfish, weakfish, and bluefish. By the time he turned 30 there were hardly any more fish there. Writing both from a personal and an investigative perspective, this award-winning journalist examines the current status of the world fisheries for salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna. He also delves into aquaculture of these species and points out the economic and social consequences of fish farming. His travels range from Cape Cod to Alaska to Georges Bank to Vietnam; he interviews fishers and aquaculturists and undertakes fishing trips to see the situation firsthand. Greenberg aims to raise consumer consciousness to the dwindling supply of fish in the face of ever-increasing demand. VERDICTA well-written book in the crucially important "fish-in-danger" genre—the author recommends goals for increasing the populations of wild fish as well as criteria for choosing the species to be farmed. Recommended for conservation-minded readers concerned with the future of the marine food chain.—Judith B. Barnett, Univ. of Rhode Island Lib., Kingston
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2010
The future of the worlds fisheries looks ominous. Beset with pollution, habitat destruction, and ever more efficient fishing technology, the oceans fish populations are plummeting at an alarming and ever-increasing rate. Greenberg travels the globe to find out the true extent of damage and how it might be ameliorated before species actually go extinct. What he learns is enlightening, but not always encouraging. Salmon have suffered for decades due to the damming of rivers vital to their spawning cycle. Sea bass numbers may be in decline, but farming techniques show some promise. Restrictions on fishing fleets have not yet brought cod back to the Grand Banks in supplies matching demand. Sushi aficionados have so escalated demand for tuna that even these streamlined swimmers cant escape massive trawlers. Moreover, if consumers actually ate seafood in currently nutritionally recommended amounts, the worlds fish would disappear almost immediately. Advances are occurring in aquaculture, but challenges remain daunting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)