The fish market Inside the big-money battle for the ocean and your dinner plate

When, in the early 2000s, the world's oceans were dangerously close to being overfished, the Environmental Defense Fund, backed by conservative funders like the Walton family and the Koch brothers, created catch shares, giving fishermen private ownership of territories, with the hope that this would incentivize sustainability. Surveying today's fishing communities from Sitka, Alaska, to Madeira Bay, Florida, to Nantucket, Massachusetts, van der Voo uncovers the complex, far-from-feel-good impact that catch shares have had on the fishing industry. The narrative follows an array of characters, from bought-out fishermen to investors to members of boat crews. A central figure is a grouper fisherman Jason DeLaCruz, known as King of the Gulf and one of the only fishermen mentioned in the text who has survived the transition to catch shares and remains a businessman. The other perspectives offered reveal quiet tragedy like the Tlingit people on Kupreanof Island near Kake, Alaska, who have been so marginalized by catch shares that their culture faces extinction. Bold, important, engaging, and intimate, The Fish Market will be especially appealing to readers who connect with environmental problems through personalized accounts.--Grant, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist