Customer Reviews

Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent book detailing an illegal fishing expedition in Australian water resulting in a forced boarding after a lengthy chase to north of South Africa, as well as the resulting trial. But that is not the most interesting story of the book. The author details the discovery of Chilean Sea Bass (bass? what a joke), the marketing angle, and the subsequent ecological tragedy as the sea beds are over fished in 15 years. The author did excellent research and tells this compelling tale while teaching the reader about the fishing industry, legal and illegal, and the current state of our fishing beds. One concern I have about the book is it is somewhat disjointed as he jumps from country to country at one point adding in a story of a fishing company owner living in America who is arrested for importing fish illegally caught. Also, in many respects the trial at the end of the book is very anti-climatic.

Overall though, this is a very interesting book where you will learn quite a bit about the fishing industry and problems with our supplies of fish.

When was the last time you ordered fish at a restaurant? Have you ever wondered how those fish got there? How about Chilean Sea Bass? My wife and I have ordered it dozens of times. Very tasty. One of my favorites. Once you read "Hooked", you might want to reconsider. "Hooked" is an adventure tale of how our oceans are being stripped of fish in unenlightened ways. This book is fascinating reading as fast paced as an adventure novel. I guarantee you'll enjoy it and learn so much about things you never knew about--fish, our oceans, ice, maritime laws. Every person who has ever ordered fish from a restaurant should read it. I highly recommend it.

Perfect fish? This is the perfect book! Hooked is part pirate chase, part history, part courtroom drama, and part musings on globalization. And it is incredible. Knecht somehow threads disparate stories together to tell a tale about the consequences of an advertising executive's decision to change the name of Patagonian toothfish to Chilean Sea Bass, and the resultant mania it caused. Basically, sophisticated urban diners search for the new, new thing combined with a fish so oily that inexperienced chefs could not over-cook it results in... the worlds longest pirate chase.

HOOKED: PIRATES POACHING AND THE PERFECT FISH promises much for a wide audience, from those interested in fishing to others researching modern-day pirating and the politics of the sea. The explosive world-wide demand for popular fish has all but fostered over-fishing and all but condoned seafood piracy: HOOKED combines culinary history with a world-wide chase to document the fading Chilean Sea Bass, a prehistoric-looking fish with the richness of tuna and the texture of butter. It's hard to place this rich text: part culinary history, part social inquiry, largely environmental exploration - it also fits under 'True Adventure'. Many will find it compelling.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Even if one doesn't care about the plight of marine species like Chilean Seabass this book makes a great read! It is a thrilling good guy bad guy story taking place in a desolate part of the world. It also very informative and insightful regarding Marine Conservation.

Really fun book, everyone I have passed it on to also gave it rave reviews. Excitement, suspense and a little culinary history. A good read

The author G. Bruce Knecht broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record on a yacht in 2005. He is a writer that has been published by the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times magazine.


This book is in my opinion is a very good, reading group book. The stories of Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish, is told very smoothly and flows very well. This is one of the qualities that make the book appealing to middle to high school readers. The way each page is written encourages the reader to continue to read more of the book.

I personally could not put the book down after just reading the first few pages, where it describes the way the Southern Supporter closes in on suspected fish poachers. It was a very addictive book from start to finish.

The book was great because the conflicts between man versus man and man versus nature were breathtakingly epic between the forces of man on one side and the forces of nature's frigid and icy seas trying to stop them on the other. The other major conflict was the pursuit between the boats, Viarsa and the Southern Supporter and their crews.

The author's purpose, to my understanding, was to inform readers about the human impact on the ocean's fisheries. It shows how overused these fisheries are and how irresponsible we are with our natural resources and what people are doing to stop that. It also shows how the Patagonian Tooth fish or Chilean Sea Bass as it is called came to popularity.

It also shows, how lacking of morals, today's people are, for driving a species of fish to the brink of extinction just to fatten their checkbooks. It also shows, how most of the time, they are shielded from justice by hiding behind extradition by living in other countries.

The goals are well achieved by a masterful telling of the background where the book takes place. It is said so well, that the reader might think he is being told a legend or a saga, not a real story from 2003. The details of the story make it seem like you were on the freezing deck of the ships. It also shows of how badly over fishing is when it interviews Daniel Pauly, a scientist about how the global fishing catch has gone down since the 1988.

Its main weakness was that the book didn't have an afterword where it says what the people did with lives after the second trial like in movies. Did Stephen and Codington continue in commanding the fisheries ship, Southern Supporter? Did Antonio Perez continue to fish? It says he said he would, but never says directly what ever happened to him.

Hooked is a fast-paced and action-packed, but also somewhat depressing account of the hunt for a pirate vessel poaching Patagonian toothfish, interleaved with a more somber, but equally engrossing account of how the Patagonian toothfish became the Chilean sea bass, and from there became nearly extinct. If you care whether the foods you eat are being sustainably harvested, or you just like a good maritime yarn, you can't do better than Hooked.

A great book that chronicles the myriad issues that face international fisheries. Want to know what you're really eating and how it got to your plate? Knecht will tell you

It is always a delight to read a thoughtfully written expose of some evil activity that is destroying some part of our enviroment. The more people read books like this, the better chance there is of preventing such disasters in the future. Nicely done and easy to read.