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The Unnatural History of the Sea

The modern fishing industry has reached a level of unprecedented efficiency. Overfishing, however, is not new. It began in 11th-century Europe. Roberts, a professor of marine conservation in England, recounts the history of fishing, beginning with merchant explorers of the 18th century who found in the Atlantic waters an unimaginable abundance of fish. These men soon fanned out to the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. Roberts describes the explosion of the whaling industry, the exploitation of seals, and the development of trawling techniques. Many marine animals have become virtually extinct in European waters, forcing modern fishers to travel to other locations and exploit those waters as well. Roberts ends suggestions on how to combat the devastating effects of overfishing. -

Today the Vast Seas Aren't Enough For Fish to Escape Extinction

By Reviewd Jonathan Yardley

There are times when the capacity of mankind to blind itself to plain reality is simply breathtaking. Thus to this day we still believe, as was universally believed two centuries ago, that the seas that surrounding us afford an infinite source of wealth. As recently as half a century ago, two respected academics asserted in a book titled The Inexhaustible Sea that what the ocean "has to offer extends beyond the limits of our imagination -- that someday men will learn that in its bounty the sea is inexhaustible."

Poppycock. A boundless delusion. What informed scientists now know, as Callum Roberts writes in this measured but passionate and immensely important book -- a trenchant, persuasive synopsis of existing scholarship augmented by the author's own research -- is that the resources of the sea are as limited as those of land and air, and that our capacity penchant for exploiting them to the point of extinction is appalling.

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The Unnatural History of the Sea

The Unnatural History of the Sea

by Callum Roberts

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

The End of Bounty

Today the Vast Seas Aren't Enough For Fish to Escape Extinction