Every Last Fish: What Fish Do for Us and What We Do to Them

by Rose George

Cold-blooded, slippery, wet and fish can be hard to think of as fellow animals and easier to consider as food. But what do we know of these creatures on our plates, and what do we know of how they got there? In Every Last Fish, Rose George takes us inside the vast legal industries that support our appetite for fish fingers and salmon sandwiches, and the equally colossal illegal fishing trade whose practices and standards are unmonitored and often dangerous. It introduces us to the men (and it is mostly men) who fish, the women (and it is mostly women) who process the flesh and strive to keep fishing communities afloat. It takes us from Alaska to Senegal, via Scotland, Norway, and Massachusetts, and from the nets on the surface to the murky depths of the sea bed. It will transform the way you look at fish and change your understanding of what lies behind the inscrutable eye that looks back at you.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Food, Science Nature, Nature, Animals

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 23, 2025

Reviews

[Annette Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who'd've thought a book about fish could be so interesting?! Take a deep dive into every aspect of the world of fish, fishing, farms and fisheries with Every Last Fish. It's lively, witty, shocking, well researched, well referenced and easily digestible; an amazing insight. And in case you still want to eat fish afterwards it includes a helpful 'good fish guide'. Everyone should read this book!

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

British author and journalist Rose George brings us a fresh take on the global fishing industry in her new book, the aptly named Every Last Fish. Fish comprise a huge share of the human diet as well as animal feed, with seafood driving $200B in global trade and growing 10% each year. Yet consumers are left largely in the dark about what they’re eating and where it comes from. Through Rose's in-depth, hands-on research, she exposes the very real, looming challenges facing the industry, from overfishing and conservation to unsafe working conditions and regulatory challenges. It's an informative, interesting and necessary look into a relatively hidden world. This is a must-read for people interested in the food industry, our food supply, the economy, our labor force, and the fishing-industrial complex. It’s a book for conservationists and animal lovers, and for anyone who just wants to know more about the food that we consume. Many thanks to WW Norton for the advance copy.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Primer Than Deep Dive. I read George's (nearly 20 yr old now) The Big Necessity near the start of 2025, so beginning the ending of 2025 with her latest release seems appropriate, right? ;) Like Necessity, this book takes George to several different places to talk to several different people and chronicle their lives and thoughts on the subject at hand - in this case, commercial fishing. Unlike Necessity, here George mostly stays in and around the British Isles, with a few ventures into other European areas such as Norway.

The overall text here is essentially 15 different essays, one per chapter, using wherever she is and whoever she is talking to for that chapter to glance at the history of that chapter's focus before primarily looking to what is currently going on in that area. There is little to no overall narrative beyond "I want to look at as much about commercial fishing in and around the United Kingdom as possible."

And yet, for what the book is, it absolutely works and works well. You're going to learn a little about a lot here, even as George has her own distinct editorial thoughts. On those, your mileage will absolutely vary, but George does a seemingly solid job of presenting the issues at hand in a mostly even-ish manner and never treating those she is profiling in the given chapter as anything less than fully human - for good and not so good.

No, where the star deduction comes here is the just-too-short bibliography, clocking in at 12% of the overall text, at least in my Advance Review Copy, and thus coming in just shy of the 15% or so I expect to see even with my more recent more relaxed bibliographic standards. Had George been more forceful or more novel, the Sagan Rule might have applied, but I don't think the text here warrants that particular application - through the vast majority of the text, George is relating what she personally sees as well as what those she is profiling have directly seen as well.

Overall a solid primer on the issues surrounding commercial fishing, at minimum in and around the United Kingdom, and something a lot of us will learn a fair amount from reading.

Very much recommended.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of the fishing industry and its impact on fish stocks, animal welfare and the environment. It also covers safety on trawlers, instances of modern slavery and the welfare and culture of fishing communities.

It has been meticulously researched with the author, who is prone to motion-sickness, spending time on different types of fishing vessels to get insights into how it all works.

The impact of humans on the seas and oceans is truly shocking. Fish numbers are in a massive decline, modern techniques are too destructive to the sea-bed and by-catch, which is discarded, is inevitable and can include endangered species - turtles, elasmobranch fish (sharks and rays) and porpoises. Huge qualities of so-called 'ghost-gear' is lost from trawlers and these nylon and plastic ropes and nets can be kilometres in length and pose massive risk to the fauna of the sea. Animal welfare is non-existent and it cannot be argued that the fish caught, sold and eaten experience a good death - it's quite the opposite in fact.

Thought-provoking but not exactly an uplifting read.

[Sheila Wainwright · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy shit, what an embarrassment.

[Laurel]

I think it is impossible to cover the entire fishing industry in one book, but George definitely managed to cover many corners of it in her approach. A mix of both science, including a look at what information and data it doesn't have, and personal stories of members of the fishing industry, Every Last Fish aims to educate the everyday reader on where the seafood they eat may have come from. I'd say she's definitely succeeding in expending my own knowledge of that topic at the very least.

From fish and chips to slavery at sea this was a book that was hard for me to put down. I recommend this for nonfiction readers interested in food, politics, fishing, climate change, sustainability, or even none of the above.

May thanks to W.W. Norton for the review copy.

[Roger Morgan-Grenville · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge subject, bravely and intelligently tackled. If you want a good example of the tragedy of the commons then you only need to look at the fishing industry; and if you want a reliably good guide to lead you through it, Rose George is that guide.