World Without Fish

Mark Kurlansky brings a diverse background to his writing: he’s been a playwright, dock worker, paralegal, pastry chef, and foreign correspondent. He has worked as an international correspondent for a variety of publications and reported on Europe, West Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. This experience is relevant for World Without Fish because the disappearance of the most popular species of commercial fish—and the forces causing it, overfishing, climate change, and pollution—is a global issue. Moreover, overfishing is a complex problem requiring countries to identify solutions and cooperate despite their distinct political, economic, and cultural factors. Kurlansky’s experience and understanding of not only global cultures, histories, values, and ways of life but also how they conflict with one another allow him to explain the issues clearly and establish a call to action for his readers.

Kurlansky also worked on a lobster boat in his youth (Fisher, Emily. “Q&A with Author Mark Kurlansky.” Oceana. June 2, 2011). While Kurlansky writes about overfishing, he is conscientious in his approach to fishermen. Because he has been a part of this world, he knows its complexities and understands that overfishing results from a complex web of factors and pressures. He also understands that fishing is both the economic and cultural livelihood of many communities and believes it can be done sustainably. His experience as a fisherman also provides him with a good vantage point to speak to the tension that sometimes exists between fishermen and scientists on the issue of overfishing. While his book is well-researched and based on a strong scientific foundation, he does not dismiss the daily lived experience of fishermen.

A prolific writer in many topics and genres, Kurlansky is a New York Times bestselling author and has been awarded Bon Appetit’s food writer of the year, the James Beard Award for Food Writing, the Los Angeles Times Science Writing Award, both the ALA Notable Book Award and the ALA Notable Book Council Award, and the New York Public Library Best Books of the Year Award (twice) (“About Mark.” MarkKurlansky.com).