Good overview of the difficulties of eating seafood sustainably. Unlike some other books in this genre, this one actually offered good tips and alternatives to overfished or unsustainable choices. ( )

Bottomfeeder is the seafood equivalent of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Its main premise: as the purchase price of a seafood decreases, the environmental and health costs skyrocket … and humane practices and sustainability plummet.

Densely written, it's more travelogue and foodie memoir than science; it’s also an interesting primer on global culture, politics, and business. Each chapter explores the history and current state of one type of fish or seafood (e.g. bluefin tuna, cod, lobster, oyster, salmon, shrimp) ... and most chapters include some version of Grescoe’s despairing lament: “Cheap [name your seafood], I now knew, was a meal I could no longer afford.”

But so as to not give up entirely, the concluding section includes resources for making good-for-you, good-for-the-planet seafood choices -- including pocket reference guides and even websites that are searchable by cell phone while you peruse the menu at your favorite restaurant. ( )

Science hurts my head. In college I couldn’t make it through a semester of biology. The textbook was incomprehensible and the teacher’s carefully prepared PowerPoint slides wasted. It was all just gibberish. Science, especially life sciences, was definitely not for me.
(Science was somewhat redeemed the following year in my astronomy and geology classes. Still tedious and boring, but at least I ‘got’ it. Whereas I’m still unable to remember basic parts of cells or DNA. Ribosomegolgibodynebulei what?)

But I try to be a good little environmentally-friendly girl and recycle, bring fabric bags to the grocery store, buy vegetables at farmer markets and patronize local businesses rather than big box corporations. (Amazon remains my huge weakness and exception to that rule.) Bottomfeeder was impulsively requested because of the catch phrases “eat ethically” and “vanishing seafood.” I love to eat fish, but I never really cared about where it came from. There’s plenty of fish in the sea, right? This book has completely revolutionized my thoughts.

A combination of travel writing and scientific research, Taras Grescoe hunts down local seafood delicacies from around the world (Bouillabaisse in Marseilles, bluefin tuna sashimi in Japan) and traces the fish’s journey from the ocean to the dinner table. In addition to mouth-watering descriptions of exotic dishes, he has written a condemning exposé of the world’s destructive over-fishing. By decimating the ocean floor with massive bottom-trawlers and wastefully throwing hundreds of tons of bycatch (fish caught in giant nets with fishermen’s intended prey but are too small or the wrong species to sell) the fishing industry is on a collision course with disaster.

But Grescoe isn’t all bad news. In each chapter he focuses on a certain species and shares the best way to get it with minimal negative impact. If there is no good solution to be found he suggests tasty alternatives. He also highlights possible suggestions and experimental attempts to bring fish populations back to sustainable levels. His message is dire; if the industry doesn’t change we’re looking at a future of not sushi and salmon steaks but “peanut-butter-and-jellyfish” sandwiches. (When a natural ecosystem is upset due to key species removal or pollution, algae and jellyfish are often the only creatures left.) But it is not without hope. Take the time to read this book; with seafood consumption on the rise and TV shows like “Deadliest Catch” gaining popularity Bottomfeeder contains information that all consumers must know. ( )

This is a real eye-opener about where our seafood comes from and how its future is in jeopardy. Ever wonder how Red Lobster gets sooooo many shrimp to feed soooo many people all over the country? And ever wonder why those shriimp all exactly (pretty much) the same size?

Surely you've heard that salmon is plentiful because there are salmon farms. Want to learn how gross those farms are? Read this book.

Luckily, as a seafood lover, Grescoe writes about sustainable fish populations and does give very good, clear direction about what sorts of fish -- what species, and how and where they are fished or produced -- one can eat without feeling like one is contributing to the eventual demise of species, and isn't harming one's health with too much mercury, antibiotics or other nasty chemicals.

I loved reading about Grescoe's adventures in eating seafood around the world. Descriptions of sardines made my mouth water, descriptions of pufferfish made me recoil. This is an adventure in eating good food, and an education in how (as the subtitle says) to eat ethically in a world of vanishing seafood. I hope everyone who eats a lot of seafood will read it. ( )

When Taras Grescoe wonders how ethical his seafood diet is, he sets off on a journey to find out the facts. He finds some shocking facts, particularly concerning how disgusting and unhealthy fish farming is but how illegal fishing is also depleting stocks of increasingly rare fish like cod and the stocks are at risk of collapse.

The book is written with each chapter focusing on a specific type of fish in one location. I liked this format because it provided smaller sections of interest that coalesced into one big, scary whole, with some positive notes. Grescoe is very effective at hammering his point home. He never uses fish terminology that is confusing, even when he’s on the boats. He explains the different types of traps and just how they damage the environment or catch other fish. With his positive chapters, he emphasizes that we can still eat fish healthily and ethically. He even outlines what the government can do, things that scientists have been saying for years. So it certainly isn’t all bad, just a wake-up call. The ocean does not have a bottomless supply of fish and sometimes fish stocks don’t recover - we have to do what we can now.

I think this is an important book to read for everyone who wants to eat fish in the future. Furthermore, it’s well written and clear, so it’s accessible to everyone. I recommend it.

http://chikune.com/blog/?p=126 ( )