The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail

A tremendously important book which deserves a very wide audience. Bolster's chronicle of the "changes in the sea" wrought by human activity in the north Atlantic through the early days of the twentieth century is a remarkably thorough, well-researched, and one cannot but hope, instructive guide to how we as a society might be able to tackle current and future environmental challenges before irreparable damage to the planet and its ecosystems occurs.

Drawing on an impressive range of archival and published sources, Bolster tracks both fishing activities (technological advances, commercial practices, changing markets and the rise of industrial-level harvesting techniques) and the various local, state, and federal policies designed to show more conserve or protect fishing stocks over the centuries. He captures the tension between generations of fisherman noticing and being concerned about decreases in fish population, always at odds with their motivation to fish harder and more intensively so as to keep themselves in business. And Bolster tracks the slow development of scientific understanding of how ocean ecosystems function and the ways in which overfishing impacts the living ocean for the long term. Importantly, he notes that often during the 19th century it as the small-scale fishermen who were calling for protections, while the scientific poobahs tended to side with the industrialists in arguing that no human actions could possibly change the "immortal sea," which would, they argued, remain unchangingly productive no matter what.

Bolster's final argument, that a "precautionary course in the face of environmental uncertainties" would have been better for the world in the long run, is a theme that extends far beyond the particular themes of this volume. One hopes that policymakers will read and learn from this book, that historians will use it as an excellent example of their craft, and that readers will enjoy Bolster's readable prose and the fascinating details he's packed between these covers. show less