<![CDATA[The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town]]>

false <![CDATA[The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town]]>

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The bestselling author of Cod, Salt, and The Big Oyster has enthralled readers with his incisive blend of culinary, cultural, and social history. Now, in his most colorful, personal, and important book to date, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a disappearing way of life: fishing–how it has thrived in and defined one particular town for centuries, and what its imperiled future means for the rest of the world. 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.”

2210239

2008

The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town

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4 1 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 05 06:07:34 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 05 06:07:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jun 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 07:00:13 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 07:20:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jun 22 17:56:06 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 30 13:32:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 12:53:14 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 12:33:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Nov 07 09:05:58 -0800 2008 Tue Oct 28 10:55:13 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 07 09:05:58 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 05:16:14 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 07 08:48:35 -0700 2008 Salt, the only other of Kurlansky's books I've read, but equally well-researched, The Last Fish Tale reads like a memoir written on behalf of the town of Gloucester, Mass. This was an absolutely wonderful read: I was entertained even as I was educated, and I snickered at more than one o...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Aug 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 19 12:26:37 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 19 16:06:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 06:07:31 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 07:49:54 -0700 2009 Cod, or perhaps Salt, ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 14 21:47:55 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 13:10:11 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jan 22 09:26:50 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 09:31:00 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 11:12:28 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 11:16:06 -0700 2008
His sympathetic and understanding portrait of the fishermen of Gloucester was eye-opening to me. All the books I've read about the current fishery crisis ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 08 17:47:26 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 18:09:43 -0800 2008 1 0 false false Tue Sep 15 22:14:06 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 22:15:09 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jan 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 04:34:16 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 28 17:48:48 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Jul 14 11:03:06 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 11:03:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 13:29:28 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 23 07:28:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 08:11:02 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 06 20:25:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Jul 12 15:15:42 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 23 22:03:05 -0700 2009
I think it appeals mostly to folks who have a connecti...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jun 04 10:34:34 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 10:34:34 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Aug 15 09:26:57 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 09:28:49 -0700 2008