American Catch: The Fight For Our Local Seafood Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS & EDITORS Book Award, Finalist 2014"A fascinating discussion of a multifaceted issue and a passionate call to action" --Kirkus In American Catch, award-winning author Paul Greenberg takes the same skills that won him acclaim in Four Fish to uncover the tragic unraveling of the nation’s seafood supply—telling the surprising story of why Americans stopped eating from their own waters. In 2005, the United States imported five billion pounds of seafood, nearly double what we imported twenty years earlier. Bizarrely, during that same period, our seafood exports quadrupled. American Catch examines New York oysters, Gulf shrimp, and Alaskan salmon to reveal how it came to be that 91 percent of the seafood Americans eat is foreign. In the 1920s, the average New Yorker ate six hundred local oysters a year. Today, the only edible oysters lie outside city limits. Following the trail of environmental desecration, Greenberg comes to view the New York City oyster as a reminder of what is lost when local waters are not valued as a food source. Farther south, a different catastrophe threatens another seafood-rich environment. When Greenberg visits the Gulf of Mexico, he arrives expecting to learn of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s lingering effects on shrimpers, but instead finds that the more immediate threat to business comes from overseas. Asian-farmed shrimp—cheap, abundant, and a perfect vehicle for the frying and sauces Americans love—have flooded the American market. Finally, Greenberg visits Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the biggest wild sockeye salmon run left in the world. A pristine, productive fishery, Bristol Bay is now at great risk: The proposed Pebble Mine project could under¬mine the very spawning grounds that make this great run possible. In his search to discover why this pre¬cious renewable resource isn’t better protected, Green¬berg encounters a shocking truth: the great majority of Alaskan salmon is sent out of the country, much of it to Asia. Sockeye salmon is one of the most nutritionally dense animal proteins on the planet, yet Americans are shipping it abroad. Despite the challenges, hope abounds. In New York, Greenberg connects an oyster restoration project with a vision for how the bivalves might save the city from rising tides. In the Gulf, shrimpers band together to offer local catch direct to consumers. And in Bristol Bay, fishermen, environmentalists, and local Alaskans gather to roadblock Pebble Mine. With American Catch, Paul Greenberg proposes a way to break the current destructive patterns of consumption and return American catch back to American eaters.
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books (June 9, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143127438
ISBN-13: 978-0143127437
Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #59,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #8 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources > Fisheries & Aquaculture #14 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Fish & Sharks #19 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Marine Life
It used to be that the bays and oceans of much of the country were teaming with fish and shell fish and constituted a major portion of the protein in the diet of average Americans. In New York, oysters were plentiful and cheap, while in New Orleans, shrimp and numerous other species of fish were easy to obtain and consume, however those days are about over. Between polluting our waters and sending what fish we have that is left overseas, we are becoming an importer of low quality fish….a sort of big box type fish.The author looks at three species and starts with the oysters that once were very plentiful in New York Harbor, but which have all but vanished due to pollution and mismanagement of the harbor. Even if the beds could be reestablished, it is doubtful that they would be edible for a long time. But, if they could be replaced in the bay, they would help prevent tide surges in storms, help filter that water that is polluted and make for a better environment.The second species the author looked at were shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, particularly in the New Orleans area. Again, at one time, these fish were tasty, if a bit expensive and extremely plentiful. Now, the catches are dwindling and pollution plays a major part in this. Shrimp like a nice shoreline of marshes to grow up in. As the marsh land at the mouth of the Mississippi has diminished due to human intervention, the shrimp have started to leave. In addition, the spill by BP ruined marsh grass allowing even more coast to disappear. And the shrimp are slowly going too. What shrimp are caught are sent to foreign countries, as Americans have developed a taste for farmed shrimp from overseas. Work is being done to restore the marsh areas, which will help the shrimp; hoperfull in time.
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