A Naturalist Goes Fishing
Casting in Fragile Waters from the Gulf of Mexico to New Zealand's South Island
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the tradition of fishing classics, A Naturalist Goes Fishing combines elements of the triumph between fisher and fish, humor and wit, and a passionate concern for the natural environment.
James McClintock takes us to some of the most breathtaking waters the world has to offer while capturing the drama and serendipity in the beloved sport of fishing. We follow him and his fishing buddies and professional guides, as he fishes off the marshy barrier islands of Louisiana, teeming with life but also ravaged by recent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill. We travel to the remote waters of New Zealand's Stewart Island, where the commercial fishing industry is fast disappearing; fish for gigantic Antarctic toothfish through a drilled ice hole at McMurdo Station; and scout for spotted bass on Alabama's Cahaba River, which has the highest diversity of fresh water fish in North America. As we take this global journey, we see how sea level rise, erosion, pollution, water acidification, and overfishing each cause damage.
This strikingly beautiful narrative is a must read for anglers and nature lovers alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McClintock (Lost Antarctica), a marine biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, combines work and play as he brings together tales of his professional career studying underwater habitats and a lifetime of recreational fishing. Recalling field and fishing trips in different parts of the world, McClintock uses them as segues to more general discussions about the environment. For instance, a story about speckled trout fishing in the Chandeleur Islands, a chain of uninhabited islands 30 miles off the Louisiana coast, leads to talk of wetlands and "raw untamed scenery." A year after Hurricane Katrina hit the region, fishing captains still hadn't returned, McClintock notes, due to the danger of submerged hazards as well as the "demise of the speck and red fishery." Similarly, accounts of fishing for yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico precede sobering descriptions of havoc wreaked by the blowout of the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. That disaster continues to affect the Gulf's economy and natural environment. By juxtaposing personal meditations on fishing stories with more academic sections on such topics as erosion and pollution, McClintock entices readers to absorb his cautionary tales about the continued health of the world's waterways.
