THE END OF THE LINE: HOW OVERFISHING IS CHANGING THE WORLD AND WHAT WE EAT. By Charles Clover.

2004 1st edition. 8vo (138 x 22mm). Ppvi,314. Bibliography, not illustrated. Black boards, spine titled in silver-gilt.

"Seventy five percent of the world's fish stocks are either fully exploited or overfished. If nothing is done to stop the squandering of fish stocks the life of the oceans will face collapse and millions of people could starve... Trawling on an industrial scale in the North Sea smashes everything it does not catch, taking 16lbs of marine animals to produce just 1lb of sole... Because of the shortage of traditional kinds of fish the market has moved on, competing, sometimes illegally, with local fishermen in the waters off Africa and in the Indian Ocean and plundering the high seas and the ocean depths all the way to Antarctica... [This book] also looks at the role of conservationists, governments and multi-national companies and considers some models for recovery, for example how Icelandic cod, Alaskan halibut and North Sea herring were rescued from destruction, the possibilities of fish farming and the potential of locally managed offshore marine reserves." Occasionally sensationalist but an interesting and well-researched book on the problems of overfishing.