The unnatural history of the sea
By: Callum Roberts
Publisher: Island Press/Shearwater Books
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Washington, DC
Language: eng
Number of pages: 435
ISBN-13: 9781597261029; 9781597261616
Subjects: History; Ökologisches Gleichgewicht; Memorial bookplates; Ocean and civilization; Seefischerei; Ocean; Artensterben; Whitman College; Class of 1936; Oceanen; Overbevissing; Meer; Überfischung; Zeeën; Meerestiere
Description: "Drawing on firsthand accounts of early explorers, pirates, merchants, fishers, and travelers, the book recreates the oceans of the past: waters teeming with whales, sea lions, sea otters, turtles, and giant fish. The abundance of marine life described by 15th century seafarers is almost unimaginable today, but Roberts both brings it alive and artfully traces its depletion. Collapsing fisheries, he shows, are simply the latest chapter in a long history of unfettered commercialization of the seas."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface -- -- pt. 1.; title: Explorers and exploiters in the age of plenty -- -- ch. 1.; title: The end of innocence -- -- ch .2.; title: The origins of intensive fishing -- -- ch. 3.; title: Newfound lands -- -- ch. 4.; title: More fish than water -- -- ch. 5.; title: Plunder of the Caribbean -- -- ch. 6.; title: The age of merchant adventures -- -- ch. 7.; title: Whaling : the first global industry -- -- ch. 8.; title: To the ends of the Earth for seals -- -- ch. 9.; title: The great fisheries of Europe -- -- ch. 10.; title: The first trawling revolution -- -- ch. 11.; title: The dawn of industrial fishing -- -- pt. 2.; title: The modern era of industrial fishing -- -- ch. 12.; title: The inexhaustible sea -- -- ch. 13.; title: The legacy of whaling -- -- ch. 14.; title: Emptying European seas -- -- ch. 15.; title: The downfall of king cod -- -- ch 16.; title: Slow death of an estuary : Chesapeake Bay -- -- ch .17.; title: The collapse of coral -- -- ch. 18.; title: Shifting baselines -- -- ch .19.; title: Ghost habitats -- -- ch. 20.; title: Hunting on the high plains of the open sea -- -- ch. 21.; title: Violating the last great wilderness -- -- pt. 3.; title: The once and future ocean -- -- ch. 22.; title: No place left to hide -- -- ch. 23.; title: Barbequed jellyfish or swordfish steak? -- -- ch. 24.; title: Reinventing fishery management -- -- ch. 25.; title: The return of abundance -- -- ch. 26.; title: The future of fish --; title: Notes --; title: Index.