September 30, 2015 — Three years have passed since the publication of the book, The Mortal Sea, but its impact continues. The 378-page history of the dramatic decline of fish in the western Atlantic took 10 years of investigative work to write. The book opens when European fishermen sailed these waters in pursuit of cod and finishes in relatively recent times, with the introduction of diesel powered draggers 60 years ago.
Jeffrey Bolster, the author, continues to give talks and share his book’s mission. On Sunday, Oct. 11, he will speak at the Chatham Historical Society.
In a phone interview with the Vineyard Gazette, Mr. Bolster said: “By the time I finished writing the book, I realized that I had written a parable. You will always have scientists saying we have taken too much. And you will always have someone say that the science isn’t enough. Whether you are talking about potable water in California, about plastics in the ocean or global warming, there will always be someone on either side of the issue, someone saying we need to proceed with caution. On the flip side, they will press on regardless.”
The fish in the ocean once numbered the grains of sand in the Sahara, he said. “And there was thinking that there was nothing we could do to touch it. Yet, it turns out, the killing of the fish in the ocean was far easier than the killing of all insects on the land,” Mr. Bolster said.
Today most striped bass caught along the eastern seaboard were spawned in the Chesapeake Bay. Yet more than a century ago, striped bass spawned in many of the rivers of the eastern seaboard all the way up to Maine.
Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette