New England has a long and proud tradition of living from and by the sea, especially here on the south coast of Massachusetts. Once the world's largest whaling port, New Bedford now ranks as one of the largest commercial fishing communities in the United States. Among these thirteen titles you will find a good representation of the danger and the drama faced by today's fishermen as well as the rich history and tradition of commercial fisheries in New England.

Entanglements: The Intertwined Fates of Whales and Fishermen Tora Johnson University Press of Florida © Feb. 2005 $29.95 hardcover		Entanglements explores the clash of cultures and personalities among fishermen, scientists, and whale advocates struggling to save both the endangered North Atlantic right whale and the livelihoods of thousands of Atlantic coastal families.

Following the Waters: Voices from the Final Norwegian Emigration Astrid Tollefsen Leifur Publications © Jan. 2004 $39.00 hardcover		Following the Waters is the oral history and personal chronicle of twentieth century Norwegian emigrant fishermen and their families. Known as pendlers (commuters), their seafaring lifestyles, enhanced by their traditional Norwegian skills and culture, were defined by courage, daring and hard work...integrity, faith and commitment...luck, love, and tragedy...great rescues, losses and eventual triumphs. They enabled the fishing industries of New Bedford, Massachusetts and Seattle/Alaska to achieve greatness. Concurrently, it also is the story of the author's search for her own Norwegian heritage.

The Doryman's Reflection Paul Molyneaux Avalon Pub. Grp. © Mar. 2005 $25.00 hardcover		This is the story of Bernard Raynes, one of Maine's last independent commercial fishermen. The author, now an accomplished writer, was once Raynes's apprentice, a young man with no experience who came to Maine with a dream of working on a boat. In the early 1980s, these two men shared some of the fishing industry's best years. But their world changed. The author discusses the factors -- personal and political, environmental and economic -- that led to the decline of New England fishing. While Raynes still hangs on thanks to a philosophy of hard work, consolidation leaves few choices for young fishermen. For over three centuries, Raynes's ancestors invested their futures in the lives of fish. They learned to think like fish. Few today could match his skills, but they don't have to. Technology has edged Raynes out, and his fishing legacy will die with him.

Herring: A History of the Silver Darlings Mike Smylie Tempus Publishing, Ltd. © Sep. 2004 $19.95 paperback		The story of herring is entwined in the history of commercial fishing. For over two millennia, herring has been commercially caught and its importance to the coastal peoples of Britain cannot be measured. At one point tens of thousands were involved in the catching, processing and sale of herring. They followed the shoals around the coast of Britain and many towns on the East Coast grew rich on the backs of the silver darlings. Mike Smylie looks at the effects of the herring on the people who caught them, the unique ways of life, the superstition of the fisher folk, their boats and the communities who lived for the silver darlings.

The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier Colin Woodard Viking © May 2004 $24.95 hardcover		Veteran journalist Colin Woodard's portrait of the Maine coast and its forgotten history is a tale of intrigue, conflict, and stubborn perseverance. Born and raised in Maine, Woodard is able to reveal a people with an Old World sense of ties that exist between blood and soil: many of the tiny fishing and farming hamlets that dot the coast are still occupied by the families that settled them three or four centuries ago. These communities and their unique way of life are now threatened by the forces of suburbanization spreading north from the cities. Sustaining these seaside and island villages is the humble lobster, which rose from a source of cheap bait to a worldwide delicacy, from servants' food to one of the essential underpinnings of the economy and culture of the North Atlantic Coast. Informed by their cultural values and hard-won historical experience, Maine's lobstermen have found a way to defy the "tragedy of the commons," the notion that people always overexploit their shared property. Recognizing ecological limits and balancing what is individually possible with what is communally desirable, these lobstermen have created a precious example of a truly sustainable fishery. Part history, part ecological fable, The Lobster Coast tells a story as big as America itself, one with poignant lessons for the inhabitants of a rapidly shrinking world.

Trawler: A Journey Through the North Atlantic Redmond O'Hanlon Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. © Jan. 2005 $25.00 hardcover		Having survived Borneo, Amazonia and the Congo, Redmond O'Hanlon now ventures into his own perfect storm in the wildest waters he could find. His rendezvous with destiny begins aboard a trawler converted for deep-sea fishing at a cost of $3 million -- which is why its young skipper's setting out from Scotland's northern tip when the rest of the fleet is running for safe harbor. Equipped with a fancy Nikon, an excessive supply of socks and no seamanship whatsoever, O'Hanlon joins a crew of five who stock a bottomless hull with the catch, day after sleepless day, even as the hurricane threatens to wash them overboard. While he helps inventory the creatures of the deepest North Atlantic -- from jellycats to the wormlike hagfish, unchanged since its evolution more than 500 million years ago -- his shipmates exchange manic monologues that range from their woeful longing for loyal women to trade laws and complex fishing quotas. Rich in oceanography, marine biology and men's lives, Trawler reveals once again the inimitable spirit of the man Bill Bryson has called "probably the finest writer of travel books in the English language, and certainly the most daring."

Vanishing Species, Saving the Fish, Sacrificing the Fisherman Susan Playfair Univ. Pr. of New England © Apr. 2005 $17.95 paperback		Susan Playfair, who grew up digging clams and sailing in Duxbury, Massachusetts, wrote Vanishing Species in an effort to protect the coastal communities she loves. In her book she chronicles the fate of ground-fishing in New England waters since the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA) of 1996. Through firsthand interviews with those involved in the SFA debate, -- fishermen, politicians, and scientists -- Playfair offers a multifaceted portrait of those entrenched in the struggle to support sustainable fishing and communities that rely upon it.

Down the Shore: Faces of Maine's Coastal Fisheries Mike Crowley, Photos by Nance Trueworthy Down East Books © Dec. 2003 $30.00 hardcover		A commercial-fishing journalist and a noted photographer paint a handsome and accurate portrait of the men and women who pursue inshore Maine fishing as a profession and lifestyle. Here, photographer Nance Trueworthy and commercial-fishing journalist Mike Crowley paint a handsome--and accurate--portrait of the men and women who earn a varied living along the coast. In Maine, inshore fishing is more than just a business; it's a lifestyle, one that defines each day not only for those who fish, but for their families.

The Sea's Bitter Harvest Douglas A. Campbell Carroll & Graf © Mar. 2003 $14.00 paperback		In the course of thirteen days in January 1999, four commercial clam boats sank in horrifying succession while working the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Among the ten fishermen who lost their lives were husbands and fathers, loners and drug users. Each man stepped aboard his boat with his own seabag and his own history, filled with hope and habits, skills and second thoughts. Acclaimed journalist Douglas Campbell takes readers on deck of the Beth Dee Bob, the Cape Fear, the Ellie B. and the Adriatic where ordinary workdays became life-shattering nightmares.

Out on the Deep Blue Leslie Leyland Fields, edt. Thomas Dunne Books © Oct. 2002 $14.95 paperback		The best writing on commercial fishing is gathered here, blending the voices of well-known and emerging writers such as Peter Matthiessen, Linda Greenlaw, William McCloskey and Gavin Maxwell, many of whom have spent much of their lives on the water. These dramatic, first-person accounts take the reader swordfish harpooning on the Georges Banks, winter crabbing in the Bering Sea, sea-urchin diving off the coast of Maine, herring fishing in Alaska and to many points between.

The Fishes of the Sea Dave Preble Sheridan House © 2001 $27.50 hardcover		In this wide-ranging book, Captain Dave Preble, who has spent a lifetime fishing the waters of the East Coast, provides a fascinating overview of the history and nature of both commercial and sport fishing in New England waters. He has done both and brings to life the glory days when fish were plentiful and new technology made huge catches possible. But the days of record harvests carried their own seeds of destruction and Preble goes on to describe the havoc wrought by overfishing in the 1980s that neither the government nor the fishermen had foreseen. In his conclusion, the author expresses the hope that a new ethical approach to fishing will help solve the problem of depleted seas.

The Fisherman's Ocean: How Marine Science Can Help you Find and Catch More Fish David A. Ross, Ph.D. Stackpole Books © 2000 $19.95 paperback		Written by a veteran oceanographer and avid fly fisherman, this illustrated guide explains in clear language the concepts of game-fish environment and behavior most relevant to saltwater fishermen. This is marine science turned into practical information for the sport or career fisherman. Ross explains inshore, nearshore and offshore environments, the currents and tides, as well as saltwater fish behavior and biology.

The Great Gulf: Fishermen, Scientists, and the Struggle to Revive the World's Greatest Fishery David Dobbs Island Press © 2000 $24.95 hardcover		For readers who have come to know the New England fishing industry through books like Cod and The Perfect Storm, this moving, fascinating account provides the story's next chapter. Tighter regulations imposed on fisherman today are perhaps the only hope for an underwater environment seriously depleted by years of over-fishing, but they threaten to end a way of life that has been a part of New England since the earliest European colonists. The "Great Gulf" of the title is really the one that exists between fishermen and marine scientists, and Dobbs explores this complex problem with compassion for both sides.

Their Fathers' Work: Casting Nets With the World's Fishermen William McCloskey McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. © 2000 $24.95 hardcover    $12.95 paperback		From Cod fishermen on the Grand Banks to gill netters in Alaska, McCloskey has stood beside them all, working with them through pain, discomfort, and exhaustion. Fishing is a hard and fiercely independent life, one of the world's last hunting occupations and one of the most dangerous. Weaving politics around sea stories, Their Fathers' Work provides a wide-ranging yet personal tour of commercial fishing. A fascinating and compelling journey from an author who has been chronicling fishermen's lives for the past twenty-five years.

Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman Richard Adams Carey Mariner Books © 1999 $13.00 paperback		Cape Cod is known around the world as a vacation spot and a summer retreat for the well-to-do. But there is another Cape Cod, a hidden, hardscrabble, year-round world whose economy dates back to the Bay Colony. The world of the independent fisherman is one of constant peril, of expert knowledge, calculated risk, and self-reliance. It is a way of life deeply ingrained in the American spirit and, sadly, a world that is quickly fading. Haunted by the numbers of family fishermen who have recently been forced to abandon the profession, Richard Adams Carey spent a year among a handful of men who stubbornly refuse to do so. Against the Tide is a masterful profile of four New England fishermen in which every page opens onto something more profound.

All Fishermen Are Liars: True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar Linda Greenlaw Hyperion © Jul. 2004 $22.95 hardcover		Linda Greenlaw is a liar. After all, she's a fisherman. And not just any fisherman -- she'a a swordfishing captain in the Grand Banks fleet and a New York Times bestselling author of books about her seafaring and lobstering adventures. So when she meets up with her best friend, Alden Leeman, a seventy-year-old Mainer who still makes his living hauling lobster traps, she knows that fish tales will figure prominently on the menu. The place: Portland's infamous Dry Dock bar. As lunch becomse happy hour and happy hour becomes another rowdy night at the Dry Dock, Linda and Alden are joined by a pair of inebriated sport fishermen who are eager to share sea stories of their own. One thing is certain: Once you get a taste of Linda Greenlaw's signature sly wit and thrilling descriptions of fishing adventures and the sea, you'll be hooked.

The Hungry Ocean Linda Greenlaw Hyperion © 1999 $14.00 paperback		This narrative of a typical voyage of the swordfishing boat, the Hannah Boden, must surely be among the best in its genre. Linda Greenlaw's plain-spoken yet witty style makes the reader's education in the techniques and technology of modern fishing entertaining, eye-opening, and not the least bit dull. Just about anyone could find some element to relate to in this book, regardless of interests or life experiences.

The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island Linda Greenlaw Hyperion © 2003 $13.95 paperback		After seventeen years at sea, Linda Greenlaw -- author of the New York Times bestseller The Hungry Ocean -- decided it was time to take a break from being a swordboat captain, the career that earned her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and a portrayal in the subsequent film. She felt she needed to return home, to a tiny island seven miles off the Maine coast with a population of seventy year-round residents, thirty of whom are her relatives. She would pursue a simpler life; move back in with her relatives. She would pursue a simpler life; move back in with her parents; become a professional lobsterman; and find a man and settle down. But almost none of this works out as planned, and soon she is forced to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about life, luck, and lobsters. In this hilarious and moving true story, Greenlaw reveals her keen eye for the dramas of small-town life, as well as her talent for fascinating nautical description. The Lobster Chronicles is a must-read for everyone who loves boats and the ocean (and lobsters), everyone who has ever reached a crossroads in life, and everyone who has wondered what it would be like to live on a very small island. A celebration of family and community, this is a book that proves once again that fishermen are the best storytellers around.

Lament for an Ocean Michael Harris McClelland & Stewart Inc. © 1999 $22.99 paperback		For almost five hundred years, the northern cod survived the best fishing efforts of several nations. Then in the 1980s the fish began to disappear. What was to blame? Michael Harris's account of why and how the northern cod was taken to the brink of extinction in little more than thirty years is the true crime story of an ecological disaster and a political scandal -- a crime with tragic consequences for man and fish alike.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World Mark Kurlansky Penguin Putnam, Inc. © 1998 $13.00 paperback		A delightful romp through history with all its economic forces laid bare, Cod is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were legendary. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world's folly?

The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger HarperCollins © 1997 $14.00 paperback		In October 1991 a gale blew down from the frozen Canadian north, mixed with thunderheads surging in from the American heartland, and collided head-on with the warm tropical remnants of Hurricane Grace. Stunned meteorologists labeled it "the perfect storm". It veered east into the rich North Atlantic fishing waters known as the Grand Banks, and straight into the path of a helpless American swordfishing fleet. In this real-life blockbuster, journalist Sebastian Junger follows the doomed course of Captain Billy Tyne, whose longliner boat Andrea Gail disappeared into that storm with a crew of six. In breathtaking prose and exquisite detail, he examines the culture of risk, the love of the sea, and the desperation born of a dying tradition that ties these fishermen to their boats.

Giant Bluefin Douglas Whynott North Point Press © 1995 $12.00 paperback		In Japan, red tuna meat - maguro Ð from the giant bluefin tuna of New England is the most prized of all sushi or sushimi. With a single serving costing as much as $75 in Tokyo, a whole fish, weighing from 300 to over 1,000 pounds may bring more than $40,000 at auction in Tokyo's Tsukiji market. Not surprisingly, this demand has completely altered the lives of the Cape Cod fisherman. Whynott examines this change and its impact in his evenhanded, incisive book.

Down to the Sea: The Fishing Schooners of Gloucester Joseph E. Garland David R. Godine © 1983 $20.00 paperback		In a lost waterfront world of wood and canvas, sleek, elegant vessels slid down the ways at Gloucester, Massachusetts in pursuit of record fish catches that would make their port world famous. Black & white photographs, drawings, and essays tell the story of the fishing schooners of Gloucester, their designers and crew in a beautiful document that is a must have for anyone with a fascination for the coastal fisheries of New England.