The End Of The Line

Description

We have reached a pivotal moment for fishing, with seventy-five per cent of the world's fish stocks either fully exploited or overfished. If nothing is done to stop the squandering of fish stocks the life of the oceans will face collapse and millions of people could starve. Fish is the aspirational food for Western society, the healthy, weight-conscious choice, but those who eat and celebrate fish often ignore the fact that the fishing industry, although as technologically advanced as space travel, has an attitude to conservation 10,000 years out of date. Trawling on an industrial scale in the North Sea smashes everything it does not catch, taking 16 lbs of dead marine animals to produce just 1 lb of sole. Regulation isn't working, fishermen must cheat or lose money, dolphins and other wildlife (seabirds, turtles, sharks) are killed unnecessarily and fish stocks are collapsing despite the warnings. Because of the shortage of traditional varieties the market has moved on, competing, sometimes illegally, with local fishermen in the waters off Africa and in the Indian Ocean and plundering the high seas and the ocean depths all the way to Antarctica. The End of the Line looks at the problem and proves that we, as consumers, have to change if the situation is to improve.

Charles Clover has been Environment Editor of the Daily Telegraph for a number of years. He has been three-times winner of the National journalist category of British Environment and Media Awards. He lives with his family in Essex.

A blazingly powerful indictment * Sunday Telegraph * It is a rare book that changes one's life, even in a small way ... Charles Clover has written a shocking book about the effects of industrial fishing -- Andrew Marr * Start the Week, Radio 4 * Anyone with the slightest interest in where our fish comes from, and the devastating effects of our voracious appetite for it, should read this -- Tom Parker-Bowles * Mail on Sunday * Devastating - a succinct and powerful crash course on the pressing environmental issues surrounding fish that should send consumer awareness soaring * Daily Mail * Entertaining, outrageous and a must-read for anyone who cares about the sea and its denizens * Times Higher Educational Supplement *