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The Last Fish Tale
The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town
1 of 1 copy available
The culture of fishing is vanishing, and consequently, coastal societies are changing in unprecedented ways. The once thriving fishing communities of Rockport, Nantucket, Newport, Mystic, and many other coastal towns from Newfoundland to Florida and along the West Coast have been forced to abandon their roots and become tourist destinations instead. Gloucester, Massachusetts, however, is a rare survivor. The livelihood of America’s oldest fishing port has always been rooted in the life and culture of commercial fishing.
The Gloucester story began in 1004 with the arrival of the Vikings. Six hundred years later, Captain John Smith championed the bountiful waters off the coast of Gloucester, convincing new settlers to come to the area and start a new way of life. Gloucester became the most productive fishery in New England, its people prospering from the seemingly endless supply of cod and halibut. With the introduction of a faster fishing boat–the schooner–the industry flourished. In the twentieth century, the arrival of Portuguese, Jews, and Sicilians turned the bustling center into a melting pot. Artists and writers such as Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, and T. S. Eliot came to the fishing town and found inspiration.
But the vital life of Gloucester was being threatened. Ominous signs were seen with the development of engine-powered net-dragging vessels in the first decade of the twentieth century. As early as 1911, Gloucester fishermen warned of the dire consequences of this new technology. Since then, these vessels have become even larger and more efficient, and today the resulting overfishing, along with climate change and pollution, portends the extinction of the very species that fishermen depend on to survive, and of a way of life special not only to Gloucester but to coastal cities all over the world. And yet, according to Kurlansky, it doesn’t have to be this way. Scientists, government regulators, and fishermen are trying to work out complex formulas to keep fishing alive.
Engagingly written and filled with rich history, delicious anecdotes, colorful characters, and local recipes, The Last Fish Tale is Kurlansky’s most urgent story, a heartfelt tribute to what he calls “socio-diversity” and a lament that “each culture, each way of life that vanishes, diminishes the richness of civilization.”
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 3, 2008 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780345507730
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780345507730
- File size: 1756 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from April 14, 2008
Bestselling author Kurlansky (Cod
; The Big Oyster
) provides a delightful, intimate history and contemporary portrait of the quintessential northeastern coastal fishing town: Gloucester, Mass., on Cape Anne. Illustrated with his own beautifully executed drawings, Kurlansky’s book vividly depicts the contemporary tension between the traditional fishing trade and modern commerce, which in Gloucester means beach-going tourists. One year ago, a beach preservation group enraged fishermen by seeking to harvest 105 acres of prime fishing ground for sand to deposit on the shoreline. Wealthy yacht owners compete with fishermen for prime dockage, driving up prices. Fishermen also contend with federal limits on their catches in an effort to maintain sustainable fisheries. But while cod are protected from extinction, the fishermen are not. Some boats must go 100 or more miles out to sea—a danger for small boats with few crew members. Tragedies abound, while one, that of the swordfish boat Andrea Gail,
documented by Sebastian Junger in A Perfect Storm,
brought even more tourists to Gloucester. -
Starred review from June 15, 2008
Kurlansky's 1997 best seller, "Cod", was subtitled "A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World". His latest work can also be described as a biography, this time of the fishing town of Gloucester, MA. Although Gloucester is unique, its history serves as an exemplar of the changing nature of commercial fishing in the North Atlantic, especially regarding people, equipment, and target species. It also serves as a means of examining the problems of modern fishing towns as they try to find new ways of surviving in a world of collapsing fish populations without losing the best of their heritage. Kurlansky is a skillful writer, holding readers' interest and educating them at the same time with his mixture of facts, anecdotes, and even recipes. All of us, not just those living on the coast, should be aware of the issues he raises here. An excellent complement to the author's "Cod" and "Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell" as well as to Eric Jay Dolan's "Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America"; highly recommended for all public, high school, and college libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/08; library marketing campaign planned.Ed.]Margaret Rioux, MBL/WHOI Lib., Woods Hole, MACopyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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