Coverage of the snakehead story ranged from serious and thoughtful to silly and sensational. At its base lay the persistently troubling issue of invasive species and their ability to harm the environment and the economy. But that story line alone, while perhaps good for an article or two could not sustain the media frenzy that ensued. No, this fish story had everything—shadowy origins, illegal activity, misinformation, exaggerations, epic battles between man and fish, the specter of ecological doom, earnest bureaucrats, wanted posters, bounties, late night talk show hosts, early morning talk show hosts, a blue ribbon panel, poison, hilarious satire, snakehead entrepreneurs, purported links to terrorism, theme songs, culinary concoctions, medicinal connections, and most importantly a fish that pound for pound surely ranks as one of most vilified creatures on earth. Just as the summer of 2001 was called the summer of the shark, the summer of 2002 became the summer of the snakehead. This is the story of that fascinating fish and how it captured our imagination and took us all on a wild ride.
I grew up near the coasts of New York and Connecticut, and since an early age I was fascinated by the natural world, especially the ocean. I spent many days wandering the beaches on the edge of Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, collecting seashells and exploring tidepools. Throughout my career, which included jobs as an environmental consultant and an environmental policy analyst, one thing remained constant--I enjoyed writing and telling stories. Around 2002, I told my wife I wanted to be a fulltime writer. After she stopped laughing, she said, okay, if you can earn a certain amount of money, you can quit your day job. It took me another five years to meet that threshold, and I am now a fulltime writer. How long my career as a writer is going to last, I don't know; but I hope it lasts forever, and that I keep discovering interesting stories to tell. If you want to learn more about me and my books, please visit my website, at www.ericjaydolin.com. Thanks for reading.
Honors:
My most recent book, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: the Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton, 2010), a national bestseller, was chosen by New West, The Seattle Times, and The Rocky Mountain Land Library as one of the top non-fiction books of 2010. My last book book, Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W. W. Norton, 2007), was selected as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal. Leviathan was also chosen by Amazon.com's editors as one of the 10 best history books of 2007. For Leviathan, I was awarded the the 23rd annual (2007) L. Byrne Waterman Award, by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, for outstanding contributions to whaling research and history. Leviathan also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, given by the North American Society for Oceanic History, was named an Honors Book in nonfiction for the 8th annual Massachusetts Book Awards (2008-2009), and was awarded a silver medal for history in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (2008).
