Popular books related to Environmental and Wildlife and Fishing Issues
Title / Author / DescriptionCaviar: the strange history and uncertain future of the world’s most coveted delicacy / Inga Saffron / A nice history of caviar and its social status and the fisheries for the sturgeon that produce it. Emphasis on the market economics, history and management of the Caspian Sea, the most important historical source of sturgeon roe, but also covers developments in North America. While the book is built around the importance of caviar markets, there is a wealth of valuable information on the fish and the fisheries
Men’s Lives / Peter Matthiessen / (currently out of print, but widely available through internet used book sources). (An excellent history of the various fisheries, including whaling, of the South Fork of Long Island, including first person experiences, and the politics of management as of the mid-80s, by one of our finest journalistic writers).
The Philosopher Fish: sturgeon, caviar, and the geography of desire / Richard Carey, / With an emphasis on the Caspian Sea, the world’s historical center for caviar fisheries, Carey tours sturgeon waters worldwide, talking with fishermen, managers and conservationists about these endangered fish. Extremely well-written and informative, Carey’s book provides a comprehensive view of sturgeon past and present).
** / The Perfect Storm: a true story of men against the sea / Sebastian Junger / (The best-selling account of the loss of the swordfishing boat Andrea Gail in the North Atlantic in 1991. Focus is primarily on the storm, with brief discussion of the fishery and what motivates its participants).
The Lobster Chronicles: life on a very small island / Linda Greenlaw / (By the author of the HungryOcean, and better known as the captain of the sister ship of the Perfect Storm’s Andrea Gail. Here she leaves the open ocean for lobster fishing on the Maine island she grew up on. As much about the island life as about the lobster, but a nice personal view of a fishery that remains primarily one of small independent fishers).
In the Heart of the Sea: the tragedy of the whaleship Essex / Nathaniel Philbrick, / (The history of the 1821 attack and sinking of a whaleship in the southern Pacific that inspired Moby Dick. Very much an adventure and survival story, but includes nice background on the history of the NantucketIsland based whaling industry).
In the Slick of the Cricket / Russell Drum / (A Hunter S. Thompson-esque trip aboard a charter fishing trip out of Montauk, New York in search of giant great white sharks with the captain that inspired the character Quint from Jaws. Some history of the development of the recreational charter business, but this is primarily about the man who helped create this specialized fishery).
Close the Shore: the terrifying shark attacks of 1916 – / Michael Capuzzo, / (The story of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks that inspired Jaws, an interesting account of the early beginnings of the shark in myth and legend. More a social history than a book about sharks, but some useful biological information).
The Control of Nature / John McPhee / Master how-it-works writer John McPhee has instructed his readers in the arcana of how oranges are commercially graded, how mountains form, how canoes are built and oceans crossed. In The Control of Nature he turns his attention once more to geology and the human struggle against nature. In one sketch, he explores the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' unrealized plan to divert the flow of the Mississippi River into a tributary, the Atchafalaya, for flood control; in another, he looks at the ingenious ways in which an Icelandic engineer saved a southern harbor on that island from being destroyed by a lava flow; in a third, he examines a complex scheme to protect Los Angeles from boulders ejected from mountains by compression and tectonic movement. As always, McPhee combines a deep knowledge of his subject with a narrative approach that is wholly accessible; you may not have thought you were interested in earthquakes and flood control, but he gently leads you to take a passionate concern in such matters.
The Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology / Simon Winchester / As he did in The Professor and the Madman, Winchester chooses an obscure historical character who is inherently fascinating, but whose life and work have also had a strong impact on civilization. Here is William Smith, the orphan son of a village blacksmith, with lots of pluck and little luck until the end of his life when this pioneering first geological cartographer of the world beneath our feet was finally and fully recognized. Smith's life illustrates the interconnectedness of early 19th-century science, the industrial revolution, an intellectual climate that permits a look beyond religious dogma, and the class biases that endlessly impede his finances and fortunes. Published in 1815, Smith's huge and beautiful map of geological strata and the fossils imbedded in them blazed the way for Darwin and the creation-vs.-evolution debates that rage even day. Winchester is a fine stylist who also has a fine, clear reading voice. He fully engages listeners, not only with the excitement of Smith's life and work, but even with geological explications that would have been pretty dull in science class
The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction / Robert T. Bakker / Bakker is undoubtedly the controversial and exciting dinosaurologist of the day. His ideas of active, behaviorly complex, warm-blooded dinosaurs have shaken orthodox views and stimulated both public interest and renewed scientific research. In this book he reviews many of his well-known ideas about dinosaur physiology, feeding habits, running ability, taxonomy, and extinction, and offers tidbits on more minor details, e.g., whether dinosaurs had a gizzard. He writes in a colorful, even impassioned prose more akin to political rhetoric than analytic science. While this book lacks the breadth and balanced objectivity of David Norman's excellent The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (Crescent Bks., 1985), it is nevertheless important and revolutionary.
Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay / Author, John Barth, William W. Warner
Better Off : Flipping the Switch on Technology / Eric Brende / Brende, an MIT grad student studying technology's influence on society, reached conclusions that disturbed both him and his faculty mentors. A chance encounter with a "black-hatted man" prompted Brende and his new wife to move to a religious, "Mennonite-type" community that in many respects makes the Amish seem worldly, where he hoped to pare his environment down to "a baseline of minimal machinery" that could sustain human comfort while allowing him to stay off the power grid. His rough prose honestly addresses how neighbors in his new community could graciously offer help yet warily view Brende as an intruder; Brende himself was particularly sensitive to perceived slights, and the radical lifestyle shift created a unique set of strains on his new marriage. Though the ending feels a bit rushed, his gentle case for simple living will easily resonate with the converted and may inspire skeptics to grapple more intimately with the issue.
** / Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World / Mark Kurlanski / An outstanding history of the world’s most important commercial species and the fisheries that have pursued it. Pretty much everything you could ever want to know about the fishery and its place in history, a classic of the genre that is highly recommended
** / Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed / Jared Diamond / Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Collapse uses geographic and environmental factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. n general, Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environmental concerns are one and the same. With Collapse, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland and the Maya to convince a skeptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes Collapse so compelling. --
** / Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal / Eric Schlosser / In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more. Anyone listening to this audiobook on a car trip and realizing that the Chicken McNugget turned "a bird that once had to be carved at a table" into "a manufactured, value-added product" will think twice about stopping for a snack at the highway rest stop.
** / Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies / Jared Diamond / Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years. -
** / Salt: A World History / Mark Kurlanski / Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World, here turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Kurlansky's kaleidoscopic history is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.
** / The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World / Michael Pollan / Examines the coevolution of plants and humans by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication. In making his point, Pollan focuses on the relationship between humans and four specific plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. Pollan has read widely on the subject and elegantly combines literary, historical, philosophical, and scientific references with engaging anecdotes, giving readers much to ponder while weeding their gardens.
The Founding Fish " / John McPhee / (An examination of the history and biology of the American shad with an emphasis on angling. The species is perhaps second only to the cod for its historic importance in American East Coast fisheries. A nice book by a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, with much personal anecdote relative to his own love of fishing for the species).
** / The HungryOcean : A Swordboat Captain's Journey / Linda Greenlaw / Greenlaw, captain of a commercial swordfishing boat, tells a new brand of salty tale. She is a woman who has succeeded in a codified and clannish man's vocation, and her take on life at sea is clear-eyed and fresh as she relates the day-to-day facts of a single voyage. Reading her diarylike entries, she sounds straightforward and realAwithout suffering the flatness of tone that often afflicts nonprofessional performers. She starts on sailing day, telling how her boat is prepared, then introduces her five-man crew as they arrive shipsideAwith telltale pounding hangovers. Then she gets into the dynamic of the job, what it means to spend 30 days in a 100-ft. space, working long hours. With the crew, naturally, come "crew problems": sickness, conflicts, insubordination. Here, Greenlaw shines, giving a wonderful sense of what she calls "the etiquette" of her work. Greenlaw proves that it doesn't take life-and-death conflict to make sea adventure compelling; what sets her world apart is spelled out in the details, as she succinctly depicts her singular way of life. Thanks to the intimacy afforded by the spoken-word medium, listeners will feel as if they're right alongside the captain on her journey.
** / The Orchid Thief : A True Story of Beauty and Obsession / Susan Orlean / The Orchid Thief centers on south Florida and John Laroche, a quixotic, charismatic schemer once convicted of attempting to take endangered orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp, a state preserve. Laroche, a horticultural consultant who once ran an extensive nursery for the Seminole tribe, dreams of making a fortune for the Seminoles and himself by cloning the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii. Filled with Palm Beach socialites, Native Americans, English peers, smugglers, and naturalists as improbably colorful as the tropical blossoms that inspire them, this is a lyrical, funny, addictively entertaining read. --Barrie Trinkle--
** / The Secret Life of Lobsters : How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean / Trevor Corson / (An outstanding book on the lobster fishery of Maine. Corson provides insights into the lives of those who fish for them as well as an in depth look at the scientists who try to understand them, all interspersed with a look at the life of the lobster itself. About anything you might want to know about lobster).
Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations / Eric Dinerstein / Dinerstein, currently the World Wildlife Fund's chief scientist, recounts his unintended switch from majoring in filmmaking to studying biology. It began with spotting a little green heron in the wild and has evolved into this travelogue as notable for its candor and insight as for its descriptive lushness, scientific clarity, and compassion for people whose way of life is as endangered as natural habitats. Dinerstein chronicles extreme physical discomfort, some fear, and much wonder in his lively accounts of searching for tigers in Nepal, snow leopards in Kashmir, giant river otters on the Orinoco, and bats in Central America's Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. He also takes readers to Africa, our own Great Plains, New Caledonia, and the Galapagos Islands, gleaning from each journey new information pertaining to the complex and urgent need for global biodiversity conservation, from the drawbacks and benefits of ecotourism to the promising concept of "indigenous reserves."Dinerstein's compelling tour of wild places and his vivid portraits of intrepid wildlife defenders offer convincing arguments for providing the treasures of nature with the same reverence and protection we accord cherished works of art.
** = book I have read & recommend