The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat (Hardcover)

by Charles Clover (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this devastating book, first published in Great Britain and now revised and updated for North American readers, Clover, environment editor of London's Daily Telegraph, shows that fishing with modern technology has put us just a hairsbreadth away from destroying entire ocean ecosystems. New England's fisheries have collapsed, the fish stocks of West Africa's continental shelf are overexploited, few cod are left in Newfoundland's Grand Banks, and, according to one study, 90% of the large fish in the ocean in 1950 have disappeared. Clover finds many people to blame, including trawlers with huge nets that destroy everything in their wake, incompetent scientists, dishonest governmental agencies, celebrity chefs with endangered species on their menus, and the general public, which pays no attention to how the fish it eats is obtained. He's especially critical of the European Union, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and countries like Japan and Spain that persist in illegal fishing. Clover's hard-hitting approach will probably anger some, but his argument that we will soon run out of fish unless we take drastic measures—such as establishing huge no-take zones where fish stocks can recover—is persuasive. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Lyrical and scientific books about the marine-life crisis exist, including works by Carl Safina and Richard Ellis, but to really grab people's attention there's nothing like the dispatches of a good investigative reporter. British environmental journalist Clover covers it all, from destructive high-tech fishing techniques to the regulations meant to protect fish species, the nearly universal practice of hauling in and selling illegal catches, and the snarled politics that hamper ocean conservation efforts. Clover, conversant, cogent, and refreshingly blunt, cites statistics that reveal the loss of 90 percent of the earth's preindustrial fish population due to overfishing, explains why "the conservation of wild fish is a human health issue as well as an environmental one," and cites the problems with fish farming. He even takes restaurants to task for serving "the marine equivalent of the panda, the rhino, and the great apes," and provides lists of fish to avoid and those you can eat "with a clear conscience." Healthy ocean ecosystems are our birthright, Clover declares, and "the time has come to change the laws of the sea so that they are more like the laws of the land." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: New Press (November 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159558109X
• ISBN-13: 978-1595581099
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #300,860 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #68 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Natural Resources > Fisheries & Aquaculture

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love eating fish, you should buy this book!, July 25, 2006

By	A. Dominguez Burgos - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat (Paperback)

It is a fascinating, very well written book on a subject most people forget about in spite of how important it is: the food resources of the sea. When I first saw the book I wondered how the author could make an interesting topic out of it...when I started to browse it, I discovered a great amount of information about the wonderful world of the seas, about what so many companies are doing to our resources, about the repercusions hardly anyone is aware of.
I bought it and read it immediately.
One of the best non-fiction books I have read in the last few years.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Informative... A Must-Read!, January 3, 2007

By	Corrie A. Borges (Middletown, RI, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The End of the Line" is a well-written, highly informative book which addresses a serious global issue.

"Imagine what people would say if a band of hunters strung a mile of net between two immense all-terrain vehicles and dragged it at speed across the plains of Africa.... left behind is a strangely bedraggled landscape resembling a harrowed field... this efficient but highly unselective way of killing animals is known as trawling... it is practiced the world over every day, from the Barents Sea in the Arctic to the shores of Antarctica and from the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the central Pacific to the temperate waters off Cape Cod."

Overfishing is a serious problem that must be addressed. The statistics are staggering. As journalist Charles Clover shows in his global exploration of the destruction caused by overfishing, we have inflicted a crisis on the oceans in a single human lifetime greater than any yet caused by pollution.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone who wants to know about the state of our world fishery resources, June 5, 2007

By	Joseph A. Cavanaugh (Key Largo, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For those of you who are concerned about the state of our fisheries and declining fish populations worldwide, I would suggest a newly published book, "The End of the Line," by Charles Clover. As The Independent suggests, his book is "the maritime equivalent of Silent Spring." Clover takes the reader on an unbiased tour of many of the most important fisheries throughout the world from Africa to Iceland, offshore to nearshore. His appraisal and commentary of fishery management is candid and insightful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves trying to contemplate the disequilibrium between fishery management and sustainability. The book ends with some positive examples of fishery management of which there are sadly too few, and he has some helpful tips for all of us to do our part to ensure fish stocks for the next generation.