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 ( )

BOTTOMFEEDER
By Taras Grescoe
I was really looking forward to reading this book and I was not disappointed. When it comes to eating seafood responsibly I have always felt at a loss for information. First of all I grew up in North Eastern Ohio and the only “local” fish there came from Lake Erie and there was a time that no one would eat fish from Lake Erie. I also am allergic to just about every kind of shell fish. So beyond the Gortons Fisherman my palate is unrefined to say the least. After reading this book I have a much better understanding of how the oceans of our world are being affected by the lack of understanding on the part of most of its people. This book, over the course of 10 chapters takes the reader through the problems facing our most endangered species of fish as well as the many reasons why these fish are endangered. It is not one simple problem but the answer is actually not that difficult to implement even though it is not popular every where. The answer is being informed and not accepting practices that are destroying our oceans. If we don’t buy products that are not ethically produced there will be no market for them. I liked the fact that every chapter had a focus on a specific fish and its ecosystem. What the challenges were for that ecosystem and what could be done about it. Because of this chapter by chapter approach when I want to reference the book again in the future I will have a much easier time finding the information I need. It seems to me after reading this book that the two main culprits in the problems facing our oceans is ignorant indiffference on the part of the consumer and the greed of those that see the ocean as a source of income and not a way of life. I will never look at seafood the same way again. While I am not a big seafood consumer myself I now want to explore eating the fishes that are sustainable and incorporate them into my family’s diet. After all fish is brain food. I liked this book a lot even though it was not a fast read. I had to work my way through each chapter because it was filled with so much information. The author does include a good index in the back as well as an appendix to resources. There also is a section on which fish to eat and which to avoid. My only real complaint is that I wish it had a good recipe for sardines. ( )

Name a few looming environmental disasters off the top of your head. Be they global warming, terrestrial habitat destruction, industrial pollution, or declining fossil fuels, the worldwide collapse of wild fisheries isn't likely to be among them. Hopefully, however, Taras Grescoe's Bottomfeeder will change all that.

Grescoe sets out to argue several points in this book: that seafood is an intelligent and healthy source of protein, that the seafood industry's rapacious demand for fish as food and industrial input, primed as it is to wipe aquatic biodiversity off the face of the earth, is perhaps the most pressingly underacknowledged environmental issue of our time; and that intelligent consumers can continue to enjoy seafood provided they get informed and eat ethically. It's certainly an ambitious agenda; surprisingly, he roundly succeeds in making each of these cases, and in an engaging (and engagingly unpolemic) way.

Bottomfeeder is first and foremost an examination of the ecological roles played by some of mankind's favorite varieties of seafood: their habitats, roles in the food chain, and the big industries and artisanal fishermen who harvest them, and the effects that harvesting has on the environment. Grescoe is adept at turning what by all rights should be an exceedingly dull litany of scientific fact into highly entertaining reading, all without simplifying or dumbing down the science and its implications--a skill possessed by far too few authors in the genre of popular science. Furthermore, he lets the facts speak for themselves, conveying the gravity of the situation regarding declining fish stocks without whitewashing or mincing words, but without frothing at the mouth either (and thus losing skeptical readers). Finally, although Grescoe is certainly an advocate of ethical eating and sustainable seafood, he remains conscious of the plight of people who make their livings from the seas as well as the ethical dilemma in which lovers of seafood often find themselves.

The bottom line is that Bottomfeeder will not only make you smarter, but will keep you well entertained as it does so. I will definitely be keeping this volume close to hand for rereads.

Taras Grescoe is a seafood lover. He is a piscatarian - he has eliminated meat an poultry from his diet, which means he pretty much eats seafood every day. He has also become increasingly concerned about the increasing reports that some seafood can be dangerous to your health, and the methods of harvesting seafood can be extremely dangerous to the global enviroment. So, Grescoe decides to find out for himself - he embarks on a world tour, talking to fish catchers, fish farmers, fish sellers, fish cookers, fish eaters, fish suppliers, and fish lovers from all points of the globe. He eats some pretty amazing meals, and comes away with a different perspective on eating seafood.

This book was fascinating. I live in Iowa, where we don't have a huge variety of native seafood, so much of the information in the book was completely new to me. Grescoe explains some of the reasons many fisheries are nearing collapse - overfishing, bad methods of fishing, and fish farming have resulted in a large number of fish that are on the verge of being commercially extinct. He also explains that many famous chefs, by continuing to insist on offering these nearly extinct fish on their menus, are contributing to the demand for them worldwide, leading to more bad fishing methods and overfishing.

He explains the concept of trophic levels, which is the number assigned to every living thing on earth based on what they consume. Phytoplankton are given a 1, and a human is given a 5. He then shows that fish at the highest trophic levels - tuna, cod, Chilean sea bass, shark - are the ones that are most often overfished, and often contain the most contaminants. He then presents the concept of bottomfeeding - eating the fish at lower trophic levels, such as halibut, mackerel, oysters, and trout. These fish have fewer contaminants, making them healthier for us, and are generally harvested in sustainable ways, making them healthier for the environment as well. At the end of the book, he offers several pages of resources designed to assist consumers in making more ethical seafood choices.

Grescoe's book is not only interesting, but incredibly entertaining. He does a great job of bringing the many characters he meets on his travels to life. His ability to capture the flavor of the meal he is eating made it easy to put myself in his place. I also appreciated his honesty about many of the internal struggles he experienced - wanting to eat something delicious, but knowing the dangerous or unethical way it was harvested. It is rare to enjoy reading a book that teaches me so much, but this book offered both entertainment and enlightenment, and I am very glad I was able to read it. ( )