Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery (Hardcover)

by Michael Harris (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
...Lament for an Ocean is a riveting and stylish expose of the devastating of one of the world's great fisheries and the centuries-old way of life in Newfoundland it once sustained.... [H]is writing resonates, and he has produced a piercing critique. -- The Boston Globe,

?The definitive book on the cod catastrophe. After reading this book, you wouldn?t trust the Department of Fisheries and Oceans with your aquarium.?
?Elizabeth May, Executive Director, Sierra Club of Canada

?[This] isn?t the first book about the collapse of Canada?s East Coast fishery. It won?t be the last. But it is the one you must read to understand how this tragic ? and tragically unnecessary ? political, social, environmental, and ecological disaster actually happened.?
?Halifax Daily News -- Review

Review
“The definitive book on the cod catastrophe. After reading this book, you wouldn’t trust the Department of Fisheries and Oceans with your aquarium.”
–Elizabeth May, Executive Director, Sierra Club of Canada

“[This] isn’t the first book about the collapse of Canada’s East Coast fishery. It won’t be the last. But it is the one you must read to understand how this tragic – and tragically unnecessary – political, social, environmental, and ecological disaster actually happened.”
–Halifax Daily News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (April 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0771039581
• ISBN-13: 978-0771039584
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,278,249 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful treatment of fisheries management failure, April 11, 1999

By A Customer

This book held my interest throughout and carefully depicts the events that led to one of the biggest failures of fisheries management ever. The book shows how failure to protect the biological resource resulted in tremendous economic and social loss in eastern Canada. While the book is somewhat repetitious, it should be of interest to those involved in fisheries management and those who care about protecting the resources of our oceans. The chapter on the Alaska-Canada salmon wars would be disputed by many Alaskan scientists, but the analogy that people forgot about the fish still rings true.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an interesting read with a slightly "pop" tone, October 2, 2000

By	John Anderson (Bar Harbor, ME USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery (Paperback)

This is certainly a book to make one wonder at the relationship between scientists, politicians, and government administrators. Harris presents the story with a (to this Southerner) refreshing Canadian focus, and he reminds us of both the difficulties and the advantages that the Confederation faces in managing natural resources. My only quibble is with the author's periodic descent into hyperbole & the somewhat sloppy repetition of phrases and analogies -occasionally within the same paragraph. The horrifying facts of the case speak eloquently for themselves and don't really need a journalistic "push" to raise the reader's ire. Apart from that this book would be a good read for anyone concerned with natural resource exploitation and the complexities of international envirnmental policies.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well researched. Harris pulls no punches., October 12, 1998

By A Customer

As befits a man whose books have caused four royal commissions of inquiry,Michael Harris has chronicled the rise and fall of the Alantic Cod fishery with painstaking,sometimes painful, accuracy. There are no hero's here, only different degrees of guilty politicians, fishermen, and Department of Fisheries officials. The facts are laid out plainly, in order of appearance, and the readers draw their own conclusions with no editorializing or urging from the author. This is an informative book rather than an entertaining one, and will be the defining work on the subject.