The Mortal Sea : Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail / W. Jeffrey Bolster.
2012
SH213.5 .B65 2014
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Details
Title
The Mortal Sea : Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail / W. Jeffrey Bolster.
Author
ISBN
9780674067219
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (366 p.) : 59 halftones, 7 line illustrations, 2 maps
Item Number
10.4159/harvard.9780674067219 doi
Call Number
SH213.5 .B65 2014
Dewey Decimal Classification
639.2091631
Summary
Since the Viking ascendancy in the Middle Ages, the Atlantic has shaped the lives of people who depend upon it for survival. And just as surely, people have shaped the Atlantic. In his innovative account of this interdependency, W. Jeffrey Bolster, a historian and professional seafarer, takes us through a millennium-long environmental history of our impact on one of the largest ecosystems in the world. While overfishing is often thought of as a contemporary problem, Bolster reveals that humans were transforming the sea long before factory trawlers turned fishing from a handliner's art into an industrial enterprise. The western Atlantic's legendary fishing banks, stretching from Cape Cod to Newfoundland, have attracted fishermen for more than five hundred years. Bolster follows the effects of this siren's song from its medieval European origins to the advent of industrialized fishing in American waters at the beginning of the twentieth century. Blending marine biology, ecological insight, and a remarkable cast of characters, from notable explorers to scientists to an army of unknown fishermen, Bolster tells a story that is both ecological and human: the prelude to an environmental disaster. Over generations, harvesters created a quiet catastrophe as the sea could no longer renew itself. Bolster writes in the hope that the intimate relationship humans have long had with the ocean, and the species that live within it, can be restored for future generations.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 15. Sep 2020)
In
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Record Appears in
Table of Contents
Frontmatter
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Prologue: The Historic Ocean
One: Depleted European Seas and the Discovery of America
Two: Plucking the Low-Hanging Fruit
Three: The Sea Serpent and the Mackerel Jig
Four: Making the Case for Caution
Five: Waves in a Troubled Sea
Six: An Avalanche of Cheap Fish
Epilogue: Changes in the Sea
APPENDIX
NOTES
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Prologue: The Historic Ocean
One: Depleted European Seas and the Discovery of America
Two: Plucking the Low-Hanging Fruit
Three: The Sea Serpent and the Mackerel Jig
Four: Making the Case for Caution
Five: Waves in a Troubled Sea
Six: An Avalanche of Cheap Fish
Epilogue: Changes in the Sea
APPENDIX
NOTES
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX