海鮮的美味輓歌：健康吃魚、拒絕濫捕，挽救我們的海洋從飲食開始！

by Taras Grescoe, 泰拉斯．格雷斯哥, 陳信宏 (Translator)

每顆米其林星星的背後，都是一場海洋浩劫！

二○四八年我們將面臨無魚可捕、無魚可吃的窘境，
該怎麼吃、怎麼買，
才不會一再引發海洋浩劫？
得獎記者泰拉斯．格雷斯哥，
除了以海鮮之旅帶我們一覽盤中飧與海洋生態破壞的關連，
更教我們如何吃，才能道德且讓餐桌不至於匱乏。

→海洋版《不願面對的真相》←
→開卷年度十大好書獎←
→吳大猷最佳科普讀物←

不需要海洋學家提醒，只要看新聞，我們也能發現：
⊗ 漂流垃圾占滿海面，包括Nike球鞋、樂高、黃色小鴨、飲料罐、保特瓶等
⊗ 海底充滿被漁民丟棄的無用漁網，海龜、海豚、海豹都因為被它們纏繞而喪命
⊗ 水溫升高，珊瑚礁大量死亡
⊗ 魚類遭濫捕，藻類大量繁衍，水中缺氧，只剩水母存活
⊗ 百分之九十的高級掠食者被捕撈一空，包括鮪魚、鯊魚、旗魚
⊗ 人類的濫捕、過漁，造成海洋生態鏈的崩解

這是因為過去我們將海洋當成永不耗竭的公共財，無論是排放廢水，或大量捕魚以攝取人體所需的蛋白質，我們都相信海洋能夠承受：一邊淨化污染物質，一邊提供源源不絕的健康魚類。然而，事實卻是我們即將耗盡海洋，數十年前豐產的魚類，如今瀕臨絕種，原本澄澈蔚藍的海，如今卻面臨優氧化，充斥垃圾與藻類，再也無法恢復健康的生機。
不僅如此，在海洋被我們汙染後，就連吃魚也充滿了風險！

☞ 鮭魚：水銀含量超標，專家建議一年最好只吃六餐的鮭魚；但養殖鮭魚又充滿了色素及毒素，甚至比野生鮭魚還多。
☞ 鮪魚：被混稱為鮪魚的魚種有五十多種，除了標示「淡鮪魚」的罐頭以外，幾乎吃每種鮪魚都水銀含量過高，足以造成認知障礙。捕撈鮪魚的漁網會纏繞海豚導致牠們喪命。
☞ 黑鮪魚：吃一餐黑鮪魚，超越一周能攝取水銀量的三倍半。而且野生黑鮪魚被濫捕到近乎絕種。
☞ 蝦；養殖蝦充滿了化學藥劑，虎蝦或白蝦尤其不能吃，抗生素與膽固醇含量都很高，並且養殖蝦業排放的廢水甚至會影響周遭的農作物。
☞ 鯊魚：生育率低、成長速度又慢，因為濫捕而即將絕種。水銀含量也極高。
☞ 鱈魚：因為過度捕撈已經瀕臨絕種，且捕撈方式會使得幼魚與其他小魚被捕捉殆盡，既不環保、也無益生態。

得獎記者泰拉斯．格雷斯哥為了一探盤中飧與環保之關連，從加拿大新斯科細亞省出發，走訪北美、歐陸、印度、中國與日本十個地方，深入追究海鮮供應鏈的源頭，從紐約米其林三星餐廳吃到東京迴轉壽司，他在切薩皮克灣和一個飛魚船船長一起出海捕撈牡蠣，在印度調查養蝦場，在馬賽煮道地的馬賽魚湯，還和舉世知名的生態學家一起走訪超市的海鮮販賣區。他震驚地發現：失控的汙染現象、迴避規範的捕魚行為，還有日益嚴重的氣候變遷，在在都對我們盤中的海鮮造成影響。

在這個食安危機與生態崩潰並存的世界，我們真的能繼續大啖海鮮而不覺愧疚嗎？又該如何吃、如何選購，才能夠永續我們海洋？透過這趟海鮮的輓歌之旅，格雷斯哥透不僅教導我們如何挑選海鮮以確保健康，更能以「吃」影響漁業及養殖活動。消費者也能擁有最大的力量，維護海洋生態，就從改變我們的飲食開始！

隨書附錄「海鮮分類表」，幫助判斷哪些海鮮可吃、加減吃與絕對不碰！

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Environment, Science, Nature, Sustainability, Health

391 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Taras Grescoe was born in 1967. He writes essays, articles, and books. He is something of a non-fiction specialist.

His first book was Sacré Blues, a portrait of contemporary Quebec that won Canada's Edna Staebler Award for Non-Fiction, two Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, a National Magazine Award (for an excerpted chapter), and was short-listed for the Writers' Trust Award. It was published in 2000 by Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, and became a Canadian bestseller. Sacré Blues helped Taras fall in love with Quebec, and explained the origins of poutine to an eternally grateful country. The publisher let it go out of print, but used copies can be found starting at $89.23 on Amazon.

His second book, The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists (2003), which was published by McClelland & Stewart, involved a gruelling nine-month journey by foot, rented Renault, India railway 2A sleeper, and túk-túk, from one End of the Earth (Finisterre in Galicia) to the other (Tianya Haijiao, the End of the Earth in Hainan, China). An exploration of the origins and consequences of mass tourism, The End of Elsewhere saw Taras walking from west to east along a thousand-year-old east-to-west pilgrimmage route, stuffing his belly on a cruise ship from Venice to Istanbul, and observing the antics of sex tourists in the flesh-pots of Thailand. It failed to win any prizes in Quebec, but was nominated for a national Writers' Trust Award, and was then published to great critical acclaim in England by Serpent's Tail. The New Yorker called it "A gloriously trivia-strewn history of tourism."

His third book, The Devil's Picnic: Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit, was a real labor of love. Taras revived a post-adolescent interest in debauchery and (temporarily) turned it into a vocation, chewing coca leaves in Bolivia, scoring moonshine in Norway, and puffing on Cuban cigars in the smoke-easys in San Francisco. This one was published by Bloomsbury in New York, Macmillan in London, and HarperCollins in Toronto in 2005. The Picnic, critics seemed to agree, was a rollicking good read, with a serious subtext about the nanny state and the limits of individual liberty. It sold quite well, and was translated into German, French, Chinese, and Japanese, but didn't get nominated for anything. Apparently nobody wants to give writers prizes for having a really, really, good time (even with a serious subtext).

As for his fourth and latest book, Bottomfeeder, he really shouldn't have to tell you about it. You're soaking in it.

Taras is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Independent, and National Geographic Traveler. He has written features for Saveur, Gourmet, Salon, Wired, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Men's Health, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Times of London, and Condé Nast Traveller. He has prowled nocturnally in the footsteps of Dalî and Buñuel in Toledo, Spain for National Geographic Traveler, eaten bugs for The Independent, and substituted for William Safire in the New York Times Magazine. His travel essays have been published in several anthologies.

He has twice been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival (where he learned to love brown sauce and vegetarian haggis), done the amazing Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre (where he got the other writers ripped on authentic absinthe from the Val de Travers), and has led seminars on travel and food writing from the depths of Westmount to the heights of Haida Gwaii.

He lives on an island called Montreal, which can be found at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence Rivers.

Reviews

[anchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

PLEASE READ THIS BOOK IF YOU EAT FISH AND SEAFOOD.

在讀完《雜食者的兩難》後，我開始了一系列的相關閱讀，首次出版於2008年的《海鮮的美味輓歌》便是其一，主要討論如何健康的享用海鮮。《海鮮的美味輓歌》記錄了記者泰拉斯的一場環球海鮮之旅，從法國的馬賽魚湯、日本的築地市場和黑鮪魚、再到加拿大的養殖鮭魚。比起單純的教育讀者如何吃海鮮，作者藉由大家熟悉的菜餚來拉近距離，讓世界各地的讀者都能感同身受。

「到哪裡都要多問問題，這是唯一的方法。我們必須清楚瞭解自己吃的海鮮。我們買其他產品不都是這樣嗎？我們會看成分表，選擇有益環境、有益自己健康和孩童健康的產品。我們對海鮮也必須採取同樣的標準。」

🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣

對於成長於台灣的人來說，購買新鮮漁獲總不是件困難的事情，但我必須承認，我從來沒有認真了解過餐盤上的海鮮。雖然我還是無法分別大多數的魚種，但是這本書帶給我許多關於海鮮的常識與知識，也讓我開始重新思考吃魚這件事情。也是在看完這本書後，我才知道涼拌海蜇絲其實是水母，干貝其實是貝類的貝柱、牡蠣會大量過濾海水、還有最適合吃甲殼類(像是牡蠣和龍蝦)的月份是九月到四月，也就是月份名裡有Ｒ的月份

作者也在書裡嘗試各種少見的海鮮料理，順便提出一些愛吃海鮮的人可以在生活中實踐的小訣竅

最重要的莫過於，知道海鮮是哪裡來的。如果可以的話，也不要吃遭到過度捕撈的魚種，更別提魚翅這種具有爭議性的海鮮。每天走路經過香港上環的海味街都會看到店裡仍擺著魚翅，好像時時在提醒我鯊魚的血與淚。

書裡提到的觀點主要以北美的角度出發，但總體來說，是本兼具遊記的娛樂性和社科書籍的教育性的非虛構佳作。如果你喜歡吃海鮮，請不要錯過這本書，不用擔心的是，看完之後還是可以繼續吃海鮮的！

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ THIS BOOK!

This book changed the way I eat, shop, and work. There are practical and easy seafood listings on the "good" "sometimes" and "never" eating lists - so even if you don't read the book, check out the lists. But if you want to know why I don't eat shrimp anymore or why I think sardines are awesome (and delicious) - then actually read the book. Otherwise you'll continue eating the seafood equivalent of a tiger on the food chain, you'll continue eating the endangered species being sold at the grocery store, and you'll continue eating fish that poison you and the environment with how they are raised.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to some scientific projections, the oceans will be devoid of commercially available fish by 2048.

Tells you what fish not to eat, and why. Also good explanation of what can still be eaten, and why. The investigative look into salmon and shrimp farming was truly terrifying - as was the reporting of multiple “collapses” of fisheries (e.g. French oysters, Atlantic salmon and cod, blue fin tuna, etc). The idea that we have destroyed multiple fisheries that live in developed country eezs (Norway, Iceland, Canada) over the last 30 years and are continuing to do so is insane. This book didn’t leave me with a lot of hope.

Things you can still eat in good conscious we’re also provided: oysters, squid, jellyfish, haddock, and the small fishies like anchovies, sardines, blue whiting, etc. basically crustaceans and small fish (preferably fished locally) are where it’s at.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A testament to the power of this collection of ugly fish industry underbellies: On finishing this book, I went straight to the supermarket and attempted to make an ethical fish purchase. I bumbled the whole thing, buying rockfish that was mislabeled as Pacific cod, a species that although wild caught, was probably trawled. Before this book, I would have no idea what any of that meant! It's got great information, and is fairly readable, when the author's soap box voice doesn't get too loud. I will never be able to look at a shrimp again without envisioning it swimming around in a pit of antibiotics, diesel oil, and chlorine that's just leaked into a South Indian mangrove forest.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was plenty in this book that I already knew:
(1) we are ruining the ocean with overfishing and pollution;
(2) farmed salmon is an environmental disaster and not much use in a nutritional sense either;
(3) fishermen do a lousy job of self-policing and they blame the government for putting them out of a job but only because they can't fish as much as they'd like to;
(4) governments do a lousy job of protecting fishing stocks because fishermen are constituents, the fishing industry is an important lobby, and no politician wants to be viewed as anti-business; and
(5) the system of using any kind of flag on a ship is a terrible idea and piracy or illegal fishing is a huge problem for the fishing industry.

But there was also a lot that I didn't know or hadn't thought of:
(1) we are also ruining bays and estuaries with invasive plants and fish. We all know about carp, but I didn't know about algaes moving in when what is supposed to be there is gone or they are unwittingly brought in by ships;
(2) shrimp from Thailand or India or any other non-US or Canadian country is farmed, full of antibiotics, polluting and full of things like bleach. I promise I will only eat Maine shrimp from now on. I love shrimp but it was disgusting and depressing and I had no idea;
(3) there are some farmed fish that are just fine to eat, particularly trout and tilapia. Apparently, farmed fish that are raised in inland ponds don't have the environmental affects of those in the ocean;
(4) the Japanese, in particular, eat some disgusting things. I won't get started on whaling and my complete horror that they do this and get away with it but I learned a new term "cruel cuisine", for example, eating live cut up octopus. That is so beyond disgusting and cruel that I don't know where to begin. It's the difference between humane killing (I'm not going to argue about this) and hanging, drawing and quartering. There is just no excuse for what amounts to torture; and
(5) you can't always trust those supermarket signs about farmed, origin etc. Since I can't do anything about that, I have to make my decisions based on that information but it's infuriating to know that I could be eating something completely different and it might be farmed when I think it is wild.

I really liked the structure of Bottomfeeder with a focus on a particular food, e.g. oysters from Brittany, sushi in Japan. It's written in an engaging way. I borrowed this book from the library but I really think I need to own it. This book is basically The Omnivore's Dilemma for fish.

[Drewms64 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was both informative and depressing. I learned a lot about which seafood to avoid due to complete over-fishing, destructive farming, or the fish being apex predators. The oceans are being completely fished out, some species to complete extinction. Some simple changes can be made to help slow this down, but probably will never be due to political reasons. They would rather keep fishing even while seeing numbers drastically drop than increase catch limits or impose a temporary moratorium.

The farmed fish industry can completely ruin any local waters with disease, waste, and parasites, helping kill all the local fish while farming a specific breed. It also can take 2 lbs of food to create 1 lb of meat in the case of shrimp or up to 20 lb for 1 lb of bluefin tuna. This is also destroying the ocean because they are specifically catching other fish's food to feed these fish to create a luxury product. Farmed shrimp from Asia are one of the worst offenders. The shrimp ponds completely destroy the areas they created in, especially Mangrove forests, which are akin to rain forests in their CO2 intake. The shrimp are also treated with so many chemicals and antibiotics they aren't that safe to eat. Fish such as salmon are loaded with dyes/chemical so they appear pink instead of grey.

The best way to eat fish is from the bottom of the food chain up or nothing will be left in the ocean except jellyfish.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone looking to expand their knowledge of fish consumption, this is an excellent book.

I've been vegetarian for the past year for environmental recents and have recently begun seeking out information on if this is an ethical way to reintroduce seafood into my diet. This book was recommended to me via a random list on my journey through google for answers, and I am glad I read it in. In terms of information, Bottomfeeder paints a brutally honest reality of the state of our oceans and the impact of the human diet while offering an instructional guide for how to deal with the problem at hand. The end of the book offers reliable sources and lists of how to approach eating seafood. I would whole heartedly recommend it to anyone wanting to understand how to eat ethically while still consuming fish. I would love to see Grescoe update the book for the current state of the oceans as a follow-up.

My one major complaint with the book is Grescoe's descriptions of people. The first few I kind of just acknowledged and moved on, but as the book went on I found myself uncomfortable with the way interactions and people were described. This is the reason I gave it 4/5.

[Cristina]

Why I don’t really eat shrimp anymore.

[Grrlscientist · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s plenty of fish in the sea, as the old adage goes — but are there, really? I experienced a rude awakening at the peak popularity of Orange Roughy, which I loved. I learned that Orange Roughy, Hoplostethus atlanticus, an extremely long-lived benthic species in the Western Pacific Ocean that doesn’t even reach sexual maturity until 40 years of age, was being eaten out of existence by people like me. After I learned that, I never touched Orange Roughy again. But after I discovered Japanese sushi, especially Toro (chutoro, otoro) — the melt-in-your-mouth fatty belly meat from the giant bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus — I learned this lesson once more. Based on these experiences, I concluded that it was not possible to eat seafood without either contributing to extinctions and massive habitat destruction or poisoning myself, so I have not eaten seafood since. But thanks to Taras Grescoe’s book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood (NYC: Bloomsbury; 2008), everyone can make environmentally friendly seafood choices — potential choices I am already investigating.

My desire to consume seafood and fish as my primary source of animal protein was initially a “green” decision that was supported by my growing fondness for seafood. Despite the fact that seafood and fish are widely perceived to be affordable “green” foods, I learned this is not the case. Further, I learned that consuming most seafood is in direct conflict with my desire to live as lightly as possible on this earth (well, “lightly” for an American), and that I was contributing to the extinction of many species of marine fishes.

But unlike other food items, making ethical and healthy seafood choices were impossible because of the veil of secrecy enshrouding it. I could rarely learn the method used to “harvest” the seafood I was contemplating purchasing, nor where the animals were captured, and sometimes, I could not even learn which species of fish or shellfish I was eating. In short, the more that I learned about the commercial fisheries and fish farming industries, the less I wanted to support either of them. In the end, I gave up eating seafood — all animal protein, in fact, except for occasional dairy products. According to what I read, I am not alone in this decision.


But unlike other food items, making ethical and healthy seafood choices were impossible because of the veil of secrecy enshrouding it. I could rarely learn the method used to “harvest” the seafood I was contemplating purchasing, nor where the animals were captured, and sometimes, I could not even learn which species of fish or shellfish I was eating. In short, the more that I learned about the commercial fisheries and fish farming industries, the less I wanted to support either of them. In the end, I gave up eating seafood — all animal protein, in fact, except for occasional dairy products. According to what I read, I am not alone in this decision.

In this well-researched and powerful expose of the seafood industry, Taras Grescoe documents the commercial fishing industry’s rapacious and wasteful practices and shows how these technologies place them on a collision course with disaster. For example, massive bottom-trawlers are scraping the ocean floor clean of all visible life in pursuit of fewer and smaller fishes, while discarding hundreds of tons of dead and dying “bycatch” overboard (bycatch are fish that are either too small or the wrong species to sell, as well as other animals, such as seabirds, marine mammals and sea turtles, that are caught in the giant nets along with the targeted fish).

Fish farming, which had once been widely touted as “the answer” to the environmental damages caused by commercial fishing, causes quite a few serious, and often interrelated, problems. For example, the habitat destruction of coastal mangroves is complicated by increased local poverty due to farming so-called “jumbo shrimp” for consumption in Japan, America and Europe — an issue I’ve written about several times before. To make things even worse, the commercial fish foods sold to the local shrimp and fish farmers poison the earth with pollutants and antibiotics, which triggers the development multiply-drug resistant bacteria that cause dangerous contagious diseases in humans.

Another serious problem associated with fish and shrimp farming is the introduction of farmed species into waterways where they are alien, such as Atlantic salmon into the Pacific Northwest, where they are competing for limited resources with — and hybridizing with — dwindling native salmon populations. But fish farming is not the only mechanism whereby alien species find their way into new waters: dumping of ballast water by large cargo ships near coasts also transplants alien species, and even local aquariums are causing problems. For example, Jacques Cousteau, the world’s greatest populizer of oceaonography, inadvertently dumped the invasive Australian “assassin algae”, Caulerpa taxifolia, into the Mediterranean Sea when he was director of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.

Given these snippets of information, it would be easy to assume this book would read like a rant, but instead, it is an unexpectedly tasty combination of investigative journalism, travel writing and scientific research. Grescoe talks with fishermen and shellfish farmers, chefs, scientists and government officials as he follows many species of fish and marine animals as they make the journey from their ocean home to the most celebrated (and often controversial) dishes in the world; from Bouillabaisse in Marseilles and sharkfin soup in Shanghai to Otoro in Tokyo and monkfish tail in New York City.

In ten chapters, Grescoe’s conversations and experiences reveal, fish by fish, how our thoughtless and irresponsible eating habits are unsustainable; how we are preferentially consuming the top predators in the marine food web; tuna, sailfish and swordfish, shark, salmon and seabass, which poisons our bodies with mercury and other accumulated toxins and disrupts the entire marine ecosystem, leading to the massive over-proliferation of the so-called bottomfishes, such as jellyfishes.

Grescoe’s book is not a one-sided indictment of everyone involved with seafood. For example, in this book, Grescoe introduces us to Chesapeake Bay waterman, Tommy Leggett, whose goal has always been to “grow things” [pp. 57–59]. Leggett ended up turning his hobby — oyster farming — into an income source that rivals that of his full-time job. And the best thing is that oysters are unusual among farmed seafood because they happily filter toxins and pollution out of waterways, thereby making their environment cleaner than it was before. (Leggett is very knowledgeable about oysters and their role in the ecosystem, and as you read this interview, you’ll quickly realize he is quite fond of his oysters as more than just a source of revenue — a detail that I found to be amusingly endearing).

My favorite story in the book occurred when Grescoe elected to participate in the annual Pufferfish Memorial Service by releasing a poisonous fugu into Tokyo’s Sumida River — after consuming a potentially fatal meal of fugu sashimi. In this ceremony, which is presided over by a Shinto priest in a golden headdress, the wholesalers at the world-famous Tsujiki Market gather to pay tribute to the souls of all the fish they have dispatched. The author writes;

Picking up a mid-sized fugu, I cupped its slippery belly in my palms. It was surprisingly heavy. Looking up at me with its round, dark eyes, it was as cute as a Pokemon, minus the annoying squeeks. I walked to the river, watching my fugu gasp through its rectangular mouth. [ … ] Giving my fugu a final pat, I let it slip into the slate-colored water as smoothly as I could. It quickly disappeared beneath the surface of the Sumida River. When I last glimpsed it, it was heading in the direction of the Pacific Ocean. [pp. 219–220]

After detailing the myriad and often complex problems with seafood, Grescoe then goes on to suggest how we can do something beneficial for the world’s oceans without giving up seafood entirely. As suggested by the title of his book, the author advises us to become bottomfeeders ourselves, to eat pelagic fishes, such as blue whiting and Atlantic herring; schooling fishes, such as sardines, pollock and mackerel; shellfish such as crabs, lobsters, oysters and mussels; and he points out that we will be doing the oceans a big favor if we especially focus our culinary energies upon jellyfish. (He even mentions peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches at one point.)

This book is meticulously-researched, passionate and very useful. At the end, it has a 14-page citation list and a 12-page reader-friendly index as well as an informative and useful index that lists tools for choosing seafood — the index alone is worth the price of the book. I was so impressed with this book that I will go one step further and recommend Bottomfeeder as my “must read” book of the year. It will especially be appreciated by environmentalists, chefs, and especially by everyone who loves to eat any type of seafood.


NOTE: Originally published at scienceblogs.com on 12 November 2008.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting book and very informative. I've been using the Monteray Bay Aquariam seafood guide for some time, but last year I found myself living in China eating jellyfish, sea cucumbers, and so many fish I'd never heard of, wondering if I was helping to extinguish another species from the ocean. I tried parrot fish for the first time recently and thought it quite tasty, and then I learned from the book that they're caught by destroying coral reefs with dynamite or cyanide! I knew salmon farming is horrible, but I'd not known much about shrimp farms. I had a Vietnamese spring roll with some funky smelling shrimp on it around the time I was reading about the farms. It really helped turn me off of cheap shrimp. Thankfully the author provides helpful information about good seafood choices as well as a good and bad fishing methods. Good to know it is possible to eat seafood sustainably. This is just as much a food and travel book as it is a book about seafood. I've never had paella or bouillabaisse or fresh sardines, but it all sounds amazing!

A couple of points from the book:
-farmed shrimp and salmon, no!
-seafood from Asia is almost certainly not a good choice
-Some farmed seafood is good, like oysters and mussels, and some land-based fish farms.
-Eat more small fish like sardines and mackerel, and less big fish like tuna.
-I love jellyfish, and I will happily help to rid the ocean of their overabundance by eating it.
-I hardly ever eat at McDonald's, but when I do I will have the Filet O' Fish.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reminded me that the slowest fish of all - even when it happens to be very swift indeed - is always the one you catch yourself. Grescoe

Taras Grescoe makes a lot of really good statements in this collection of essays, organized around the depleting of protein, (fish), in the collected oceans and seas of our common environment. The impression he makes is that each of us is responsible for addressing the topic as a verifiable and accountable issue, one that is only capable of being remedied with active and persistent questioning.
In seeking new forms of protein, he ascertains the methods that have been used have not only overfished and depleted resources that were seemingly inexhaustible, new methods developed to compete with a greater demand have caused more damage to the environment, yielding more bycatch and greater quantities of smaller and smaller fish.
These ideas are echoes of other writers and other essayists, political campaigns and a variety of non-profit organizations who seek to further various initiatives and ecological awareness issues - where Grescoe separates his writing is the first hand accountability he implores the reader to take, using his own experience as a suitable example.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grescoe is such a great and evocative writer, that this book - despite some of its depressing content - is a joy to read from beginning to end. Grescoe, in my opinion, is slightly less didactic than Michael Polan (who I very much like, but also can't read without imagining that he would be difficult to stomach if I didn't agree with him). Nonetheless, he does not sacrifice sharing his opinions and clearly demonstrating through anecdotes, research, and personal experience the evidence that informs them. This book provides a much more in-depth look at the many issues that influence fish populations worldwide than anything I've read before, and Grescoe reaches some interesting conclusions that both contradict and resonate with what other food-related agencies would recommend. Grescoe teaches how to be an informed consumer (in all ways) of seafood, and speaks to the benefits with equal persuasion.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book that I would recommend for anyone. It had lots of insite to the fisheries world, that even I was shocked on. As a seafood lover, I now need to reconsider where my seafood is coming from. Also that the asian countries are about killing the fishing industry and sending us toxic, farmed raised food, especially my beloved shrimp.

I thought some of the chapters were a bit long and drawn out on some of the subjects. It was like ok I really get the picture and I am sure some of these subjects could be stand alone books on that particular fishery. Needless to say this book will definitely change the way you look and eat seafood.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read about 2 chapters so far, and some of the information I've already read elsewhere (such as Aubudon magazine, Defenders of Wildlife magazine, Eating Well magazine, Environmental Defense newsletter), but it is very well written and once I get into the parts where he tries these different seafood delicacies from around the world, it should get exciting since I'm a bit of a foodie. :) But, I think others should read it for the eye-opening info on why certain sea life populations are dwindling, and what we can do about it.

[Elaine Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing, if discouraging. A tour of fishing around the world, with each chapter focusing on a specific food and location. So: sardines in the Mediterranean, shrimp in India, salmon in BC, bluefin tuna in Japan, etc. He treats his subjects, both fish and human, with sensitivity. Great descriptive language of both the horrible and the sublime.

There's a useful appendix about fishing methods (good, bad, ugly), and specific fish (never, sometimes, always) -- shrimp and tuna in particular come off very poorly.

Very highly recommended!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written snapshot into 2008's state of the world's international fisheries and aquaculture. This was one of the most frightening books I've read in recent times. Even though the book was written almost 7 years ago, not a whole lot has changed or improved since. The most appalling and gut-wrenching chapters pertained to the practices and impacts of shrimp and salmon aquaculture throughout developing Asia and British Columbia. After reading this book, I'll think twice about the seafood I eat.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Explains in much clearer, more nuanced terms how and why we need to choose our seafood carefully; discusses what various countries are doing to help (and to help destroy) our collapsing fisheries; and what we as regular folks can do to help. Despite giving us a great deal of information and statistics, the author never bogs you down in the boresome arcana of this or that industry or political system. Neither does he descend into scare talk.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like seafood, read this book. It isn't about stopping; it's about knowing where your seafood comes from & how it's caught - or eating healthfully and ethically. Do not eat industrial farmed salmon (organic farmed is okay) or shrimp or any fish from Asia. But there's plenty out there to eat.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wealth of information in this book is astounding. While jumping a bit from issue to issue (bottom-trawling to antibiotics to overfishing) he does a good summary at the end, and the stories he tells of fisherfolk around the world are wonderful.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A grim read about the future of the oceans

[Carolynne Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars - bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe

This author is passionate about life in the world’s bodies of water and how those animals get to our plates. I had a really hard time getting into this book. Things would start off okay and than drone on a bit and normally at this point I would give up on a book and mark it as a 2 star or worse but the thing was is the chapters would give a little nugget of a story about the author’s journey to a place, meeting the local fishermen and learning first hand how the process works. These little stories were interesting and it kept me reading and then before you know it you’re learning things and even making dietary considerations. I think I’m going to limit the amount of tuna that I buy and instead buy sardines more as a replacement to buying tuna because of the information found in this book and I am staying clear of salmon and shrimp, I was never a big fan of them but I would try to keep an open mind and try different dishes made with either of them and now it’s like nope! I was trying to acquire a taste for them but now there is no point especially in knowing how they come to your plate. I gave this book 4 stars though it started off as an information dump in the beginning chapters, this book goes on to read like a bunch of mini tales of an author discovering the world and how the fish industry works. It gets interesting and it gets the point across that readers should stop to think about the food they buy and consider what it is and where it came from.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

stunning book with much more information besides the fact I already have informations about Japanese insane crave for whales, dolphins, salmon, tuna, black tuna through documentary such as Black Fin and Cove etc...and the insane Chinese crave for shark fin soup..now I know more about Brits' chip filet, McD's filet, toxic shrimps, Thailand CP group, fish sickness such as louse, antibiotics, over-fisheries are killing our fish chain...I have never found of eating fish because somehow along my own personal analytical logic: where the hack we can catch so many fish, shrimps, oysters, cod, fish soup, etc..our human atrocity are enormous on the fish just fishing alone..would anyone on earth want to have their mouth hooked for no their own crave for seafood desire? I do not think so..we never picture ourselves that someday the abundancy will be completely vanished..GREAT BOOK!

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very interesting. Though this book is outdated by now (reading in 2021, and it was last published in 2008), I still found it chock full of facts about various aspects of the seafood industry around the world.

Also includes a really helpful final chapter summarizing some of the terminology to know when asking how seafood is caught and where it comes from, in addition to a handy list of popular types of seafood ranked by how ethical and healthy they are to eat.

Really appreciated the combination of not just health effects, but also environmental and social, from the consumers to the producers. A great read!

[Cassandra Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I expected: a well-researched and argued damnation of industrial fisheries

What was delivered: a collection of short anecdotes of the author talking to fishermen and many, many redundant descriptions of seafood

In general this suffered from a lack of direction and a muddled message. Too much was left up to the reader. There were several isolated points I found interesting, including the benefits of oyster aquaculture and the horrendous impact of shrimp farming, but on the whole I'd give this a miss

[Carolyn Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bottomfeeder is both a travel book, as the author travels around the world meeting people in the fishing industry and tasting local seafood, and an analysis of the impact of the fishing industry on the environment, encouraging readers to eat more sustainably by choosing to eat seafood further down the food chain. There are some unsettling chapters including one about the environmental impact of shrimp farming and another about endangered shark fin soup but there are also examples of sustainable fishing such as tilapia ponds and Alaskan pollock. An interesting and timely read.

[Mathieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well told, well written, about how our oceans are overfished. Good data, terrifying data. (How much oil is flushed into the Mediterrean?) Yet there is seafood we can ethically eat.

bottomfeeder websites:
• www.seafoodwatch.org
• www.msc.org
• www.fishbase.org
• www.iucnredlist.org
• www.gotmercury.org

[Isaac Yuen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone compared this to a seafood version of the Omnivore’s Dilemma. While I don’t think Grescoe is quite as philosophical and illuminating about his adventures into seafood as Pollan was about his meals, there were still quite a few aspects of the book that were fascinating, even to the most seafood conscious of consumers. One of the things I liked was that he gave credit where credit is due, even if it IS McDonald’s sourcing sustainable shrimp, or his praise of the Japanese’s incredibly detailed seafood labeling system even as they continue to do retarded things like stockpiling whale meat with no demand.

While most of the information isn't super new to me, a few interesting nuggets stuck out in my mind. One was his conversation with Eric Ripert, who if you are remotely a foodie, you know this is a very thoughtful and brilliant chef who champions sustainability on a regular basis. But Grescoe finds that he serves monkfish at La Bernadin, which is a ghastly option (not just in appearance); trawls used to catch them literally destroy the ocean floor along with all sorts of bottom-dwelling species. Grescoe states that sourcing local yet overfished species is not enough; thousands of other restaurants without the ability to do things in a proper way will still follow the trends set by these top chefs. How the movers and shakers view seafood significantly influence trends for years to come. Grescoe summarizes the situation with a scathing indictment:

“The prestige of the world’s leading chefs legitimizes the pillage. It is not necessarily the fault of New York’s star seafood chefs. It is, however, their doing.”

Another point that was unequivocally hammered home was that Asian farmed shrimp are probably the most environmentally and socially destructive seafood out there. Gresoe went to India to look at farms there and paints a horrific picture, far worse than what my imagination can conjure up. Just a few of the details:

-The destruction of mangrove forests vital as fish nurseries and tsunami buffers for shrimp farm locations.
-Monopolizing land and water resources that once went to local fishing and rice production.
-Gobbling up two pounds of edible wild fish to produce one pound of shrimp
-Minimal short term profit (after rising feed costs) and maximum local social, economic, and ecological damage to countless poor fishing villages.
-Wanton dosing of piscicides, antibiotics, suspected neurotoxicants, bleaching powder, and caustic soda in the ponds and in the marketed products.

Gresoce writes that “food safety experts have discovered that some people who believe they have shellfish allergies are actually exhibiting reactions, like itching and swelling, to antibiotic residues in farmed species.” I know so many people that have developed new and recent seafood allergies. If even a few of them were associated with these practices...

Endless popcorn shrimp - no thanks, Red Lobster.

Grescoe writes: “The Cantonese of southern China joke about their voraciousness: they like to say if it has four legs, and isn’t a table, they’ll eat it.”

I'm Chinese, and I can vouch for the authenticity of that statement. Grescoe looked at the different seafood meals served at a fancy Shanghai restaurant through the concept of trophic levels. A good rule of thumb is that the lower you eat on the trophic level, the better for your health and for the environment. Eating jellyfish at a trophic level of 2 is more energy efficient than eating a napoleon wrasse at a 4 (roughly 100 times) and much less toxic, as toxins tend to bioaccumulate the higher up you go. The rule doesn’t always hold true though. Sea cucumbers (at a 2.3) are being overharvested badly. Frankly, I don’t understand why, they have no taste and the texture is like gummy shoe leather. One of those Chinese obsession with wealth and status that I wish the culture could move beyond.

Grescoe summarizes with a list of seafood choices: Avoid, Sometimes, and Always. The red list includes things like farmed Atlantic salmon, Bluefin tuna, atlantic cod (what’s left of it), and farmed shrimp from Asia. Good choices include farmed Arctic char (on land based systems), herring, sardines, farmed oysters and mussels, and jellyfish. Get used to eating the last, there's going to be more and more of it.

Personal note: For a more comprehensive list, go visit seachoice.org for their guide or their iphone app. I use it all the time.

Overall, this book is recommended both for someone who’s just learning about the issues and for those who are already pretty knowledgeable about the plight of the oceans and are looking for some interesting stories. The writing is not the greatest, but it does the job. I was encouraged to look for some local, in season Pacific sardines (Trophic level of 2.6) after this passage:


“As I pressed my fork on the firm fillets, fat-jeweled juices seeped from the skin, which was still iridescent where it had not been charred on the grill. The flesh was firm, salty, and white, and the flavour was pure protein, the healthiest kind you can eat: low in saturated fats, mercury, and dioxins, full of essential fatty acids.”

I could totally relate. So good.

[Jera · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd rate it less if I could. Eat ethically killed fish is the answer. No, it's not.

[Michelle Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead Seas

[Jon Wlasiuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book delivers a searing critique of modern aquaculture from fish farms to the chefs and grocers who drive sales.