Their Fathers' Work: Casting Nets with the World's Fishermen

The best book I've read dealing with the social AND political AND cultural aspects of commercial fishing. Making no excuses for the industry or the people who condemn it. His stories are compelling and enrapturing as well as extremely informative. It'll give understanding of why the worlds oceans are in the state they are in and all the players who have caused it to be where it is. Enjoy!

This is a superb book. McCloskey writes from such a deep base of personal experience, that within a few lines we are transported to the heaving, noisy and often foul-smelling deck of a rusty trawler pitching in a cold northern sea or the cramped camaraderie of the galley on a Japanese squid boat. You feel the shudder of the steel deck as the boat pitches into a steep swell, taste the salt in the air and gag on the stench of diesel fumes and dead fish. The book is a collection of essays, exploring the challenges that face commercial fishermen in various parts of the globe. We hear lots of languages - Russian, English, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and more - and experience very different cultures, each united by the sea and the grueling task of pulling food from its depths. Gradually, the similarities grow much larger than the differences. No matter where he is, McCloskey can rapidly blend into the crew becoming just one more figure shrouded in foul weather gear pulling in the nets. This remarkable desire to muck-in with the deckhands no matter how hard the work or how severe the conditions, is the secret to his vivid and exciting writing. I can never look at a piece of sushi or a bag of fish and chips in quiet the same way.

This book should be required reading in biology and marine life studies, for the fishing industry, fishermen, environmentalists and especially politicians & officials who formulate policy. It is a book for all nations and races, particularly those who depend upon resources from the sea.

There can't be another like William McCloskey in the worlds of fishing and writing. Imagine someone whose appetite for his subject is so strong that he spends half a lifetime hiring out as a working-stiff fishermen on commercial boats all over the world, then draws his conclusions in vivid, scalding, haunting terms. His realistic ideas might offend both knee-jerk conservationists and plundering meat-fishermen -- the surest sign that he has done his job well. When you finish this book, you will feel like wiping the salt spray from your face. A superb piece of work by a master fisherman and writer and the perfect companion piece to books like The Perfect Storm..

For twenty-years now, Bill McCloskey has been living and working with Alaska fishermen from Prince William Sound to the Bering Sea. He has many friends among them in Cordova, Kodiak, Chignik, Dutch Harbor and Seattle, Washington. He knows us and writes about us better than anyone else. Because he's been straight with fishermen from Day One, I think many men and women have felt comfortable confiding in Bill. I remember being with him in Chignik several years ago when he was doing research for the chapter in THEIR FATHERS' WORK on the Alaska salmon fisheries. He was welcomed with open arms by some of that fleet's top highliners: David Anderson, Ernie Carlson, Maurie Pedersen and others. They took him out on their seiners, up in their planes and into their homes, in my opinion, because they judged him to be a straight-shooter and a good shipmate. If you ask Captain Leif Locklinghom, a long-time Bering Sea king crab highliner, he'll tell you the same. So won't Chuck Bu! ! ndrant and Bart Eaton, highliners themselves and currently owners of Alaska's largest seafood processing company, Trident Seafoods. Reading THEIR FATHERS' WORK, especially the Alaska chapters, will put you in the shoes of the fishermen who work Alaskan waters daily trying to squeeze a living out of elusive fish and shellfish stocks, rough seas, high winds and cold temperatures.Alaska is an adventure-of-a-lifetime every person should experience at least once. McCloskey is the the right guy to take you on your first trip to the wild-side of Alaska, without even leaving your living room.Give THEIR FATHERS' WORK a summer read. It's authentic, visceral and exciting, which is why I gave it Five Stars.