Salmon : a fish, the earth, and the history of their common fate

Salmon A fish, the earth, and the history of their common fate

Mark Kurlansky

Book - 2020

A magnificent species whose survival is inextricably tied to the survival of the planet In what he calls "the most important environmental writing" in his long and award-winning career, best-selling author and journalist Mark Kurlansky recounts the sobering history of salmon and their perilous future. Kurlansky employs his signature multicentury storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon and the long list of environmental problems, from habit loss to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, that threaten them. Kurlansky traveled extensively to observe those who both pursue and protect them in the Pacific a...nd the Atlantic, in Japan, Russia, Ireland, Norway, and Iceland. The result is a global history of man's misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon and its environment for his own gain. These fish, uniquely connected to both marine and terrestrial ecology as well as fresh and salt water, are a remarkable natural barometer for the health of the planet. His overriding message is clear: "If salmon don't survive, there is little hope for the survival of the planet."--Publisher.

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Subjects
Salmon.
Salmon > Life cycles.
Salmon > Environmental aspects.
Salmon > Economic aspects.
Salmon > Effect of habitat modification on.
Salmon > Conservation.
Salmon fisheries > Environmental aspects.
Salmon farming > Environmental aspects.
Salmon industry > Environmental aspects.
Aquatic ecology.
Fishes > Conservation.
Indicators (Biology)
Global environmental change.
Published
Ventura, CA : Patagonia [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Mark Kurlansky (author)
Other Authors
Jim Lichatowich (-), Nick Gayeski
Item Description
Appendix by Nick Gayeski and James Lichatowich, further explaining several issues with conservation of salmon.
Physical Description
448 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781938340864
  • Prologue: A tale of two fisheries
  • Part one. The hero. A family matter ; A hero's life
  • Part two. A human problem. The original salmon ; Old ways in the new land ; A golden fish arrives in the east ; When it was working ; The white man comes ; Nowhere to run
  • Part three. The problem with solutions. Why not make more? ; Sea cattle ; The release
  • Part four. The dangerous future. Elegy for the Atlantic ; The ballad of the Pacific ; The golden fish departs
  • Epilogue: It concerns us
  • Endnotes
  • Appendix. Wild Pacific salmon : myths, false assumptions, and a failed management paradigm / Jim Lichatowich and Nick Gayeski.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Having written about milk, salt, oysters, and frozen food, Kurlansky (Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas, 2018, etc.) turns his pen to an iconic fish on the brink of extinction."How many species do we lose when we lose a salmon?" asks the author toward the end of this handsomely illustrated work of natural history and environmental advocacy. The answer is that we do not know for certain, but the salmon is part of a chain of life that ranges from tiny insects to large mammals and birds. Every species, then, unlocks the door to many other species, and allowing any species to diminish is to threaten the whole web of life. So it is with the salmon. Kurlansky covers all the bases, from life cycle and reproductive history to the fact that the salmon is particularly vulnerable precisely because it spends part of its life in salt water, part in fresh water. The author observes that ideal salmon habitat includes rivers that run clear and clean and that are undammed, which are increasingly rare except in very remote places such as the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, which may turn out to be where salmon make their last stand. Certainly it won't be on the Columbia River, where Lewis and Clark saw a horizon of flashing fins two centuries ago, whereas "by 1975, a total of 14 dams were blocking the main Columbia River, 13 were on the Snake [River]," numbers that don't begin to take into account the thousands of smaller dams along the tributaries. Kurlansky offers a dauntingly long list of things that need to happen if the salmon is to be saved, ranging from dismantling dams to checking climate change, restoring forests and apex predators, ending the use of pesticides, and removing homes and roads from riverbanks in favor of galleries of trees. "If we can save the planet," he writes, "the salmon will be all right." And if not, we must conclude, not.In championing a critically important part of the natural world, Kurlansky sounds an urgent alarm that commands our attention. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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