Eyes on the Seas: A Look into the Fisheries Observer Profession Through Stories and Creative Works

by Keith Granger Davis, Glenn David Quelch (Editor), Anik Clemens (Editor)

“You’re a what?”... That’s the type of response fisheries observers generally get when they tell people what they do for a living. These unsung heroes of natural resource management - operating as they do on the fringes of society, often far out on the open sea for months on end - are a little known professional group of people from the public perspective. This is precisely why, several years ago, the "Eyes on the Seas" book project was conceived. A group of like-minded professionals working in the fisheries management field had the visionary idea of bringing the profession more into the public gaze, via a creative initiative intended to showcase the lives of these extraordinary people.

Woven together in eight chapters encompassing a wide range of topics from the "Duties and Roles" of a fisheries observer to "Sea Level Conservation" to "An Extraordinary Lifestyle", "Eyes on the Seas" is a collection of stories (true or otherwise), anecdotes, poetry, artwork and other creative works from 53 contributors around the world, which encapsulate the life of a fisheries observer. This collection is all-at-once funny, thought-provoking, surprising, shocking, at times deeply beautiful and unforgivingly poignant. What emerges from diving into this book is a rare and privileged glimpse into the hearts and minds of a group of the most unusual and highly motivated people.

Genres: Nonfiction

621 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 22, 2016

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of vignettes from fisheries observers' working lives. They're short and not extremely polished, of interest to those who want that firsthand information--as a prospective observer, a family member, or to research a more structured piece of writing, as in my case--but not probably of much value to the general reader of environmental issues. There is maybe not as much here as I had hoped for, though I definitely found it worthwhile for my project.