Description
Book Synopsis"Henry David Thoreau wrote, 'Who hears the fishes when they cry?' Maybe we need to go down to the river bank and try to listen."
In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon.
During his research Kurlansky traveled widely and observed salmon and those who both pursue and protect them in the Pacific and the Atlantic, in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, and even the robust but not as frequently visited Kamchatka Peninsula. This world tour reveals an eras-long history of man’s misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon and its environments for his own benefit and gain, whether for entertainment or to harvest food.
In addition, Kurlansky’s research shows that all over the world these fish, uniquely connected to both marine and terrestrial ecology as well as fresh and salt water, are a natural barometer for the health of the planet. He documents that for centuries man’s greatest assaults on nature, from overfishing to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, are evidenced in the sensitive life cycle of salmon.
With stunning historical and contemporary photographs and illustrations throughout, Kurlansky’s insightful conclusion is that the only way to save salmon is to save the planet and, at the same time, the only way to save the planet is to save the mighty, heroic salmon.
Trade Review"Mark Kurlansky is the maestro of metaphor. . . . In his new book, Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate, Kurlansky does something similar — but, this time, also slightly different. As anybody who has bought king salmon at $30 a pound can tell you, salmon are not ordinary. They are glamorous. And as Kurlanksy demonstrates, the light they cast on the 21st century Earth is less wondrous than worrisome." -- San Francisco Chronicle
“Mark Kurlansky’s Salmon makes the species an ecological poster child and a microcosm of the environmental challenges we face.” –Foreword Reviews
“In championing a critically important part of the natural world, Kurlansky sounds an urgent alarm that commands our attention.” –Kirkus Reviews
"In more than 40 years of writing, this is the scariest thing I've ever learned. The oceans, especially the Northern Atlantic, are losing the ability to provide food. If the oceans can no longer feed the things that are supposed to live in it, then we're sunk." - Mark Kurlansky, from an interview on Maine Public Radio
It is a beautiful book, spangled throughout with stunning color photographs of a lovely fish, of pristine streams and landscapes. It’s a coffee-table book shrunk to shelf-size, but the images are pertinent and illuminating, and there is nothing throwaway about the text that surrounds them or about the recipes for salmon dishes from all over the world and past centuries." -- Wall Street Journal
"...this is a very handsome book with fantastic images and illustrations that are worthy complements to the writing. For $30, a serious nature of angling aficionado can't find a better value. This is one of the best books I've read in recent years, and it remains a fixture on my writing desk." -- Trout Magazine
"Salmon is rich in details, and a love story by one of the world’s foremost journalists." -- Tom Rosenbauer, Fly Fisherman Magazine
"Even if you are unlikely to ever swing Sunray Shadows for these fish, this book deserves your attention, because Salmon is a clarion call. If we can cause this much ecosystem damage to just one family of fish, it puts into stark relief the damage we wreak on other species." - The Mission Fly Magazine
"Attractive enough to reside on your coffee table but small enough to fit on a shelf, the book's 448 pages are filled with more than 150 photographs and illustrations that provide additional insight into the chronicle of these fish and their interaction with man. . . . In these pages, Kurlansky puts us on notice. The time to act is now." --the Virginia Sportsman
Table of ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue: A Tale of Two Fisheries
PART ONE: The Hero
CHAPTER ONE: A Family Matter
CHAPTER TWO: A Hero’s Life
PART TWO: A Human Problem
CHAPTER THREE: The Original Salmon
CHAPTER FOUR: Old Ways in the New Land
CHAPTER FIVE: A Golden Fish Arrives in the EastC
CHAPTER SIX: When It Was Working
CHAPTER SEVEN: The White Man Comes
CHAPTER EIGHT: Nowhere to Run
PART THREE: The Problem With Solutions
CHAPTER NINE: Why Not Make More?
CHAPTER TEN: Sea Cattle
CHAPTER ELEVE: The Release
PART FOUR: The Dangerous Future
CHAPTER TWELVE: Elegy for the Atlantic
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Dismantling of Myths
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Ballad of the Pacific
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Golden Fish Departs
EPILOGUE :It Concerns Us
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
