| This book is a welcome change from the hyper-earnest and sanctimonious critiques that too often pass for “traditional knowledge” among commercial fishermen. There are tragedies here — collapsed fish stocks, and ways of life that have been rendered extinct — but Eric spares us the usual cant about how it’s always the other guy’s fault. You don’t have to agree with all of Eric’s conclusions here (I don’t). It’s still an honest, hilarious, and informative account of life in British Columbia’s raucous fishing industry. |
Terry Glavin
Conservationist and author of The Last Great Sea: A voyage through the human and natural history of the North Pacific Ocean. |
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Dead Fish and Fat Cats is an absolutely delightful read. Eric brings the fishing business alive with his wit and humor, and more important he offers some really deep insights about why fisheries management has failed so badly in B.C. and about ways to manage the fisheries more wisely and sustainable. He has had a remarkably wide range of experience in fishing and fisheries management, and his commentary about the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, especially about its staff and how the Department functions (and fails to function), is bang on the mark. Many fisheries professionals are just now beginning to look at the Black Cod Association as a model for the future of fisheries management, and we are just beginning to see that he has very good reason for his pride in that organization and its accomplishments. Bravo!! |
Carl Walters
Professor, Fisheries Centre, UBC
FRSC |
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I first encountered Eric Wickham years ago when he presciently informed me about the immense scale and destructive power of trawlers that drag huge weights across the ocean floor, indiscriminately hauling in a trove of creatures most of which are discarded as by-catch while their homes are pulverized. Here was a man who knew how to fish and recognized the threat that the modern fleet posed to lifers like him. I am delighted to see he has put his experiences, observations and ideas into a book. It is filled with wicked humour, wisdom that can only come from personal experience and lots of cogitation, and a blunt indictment of our government bureaucrats and politicians who have driven resources into near extinction. It is amazing that people haven’t been sent to prison for the criminal way they have mismanaged fish stocks on both Canadian coasts. Read this book for a real insight into how we got into this mess and what should be done to get out of it. |
Dr. David Suzuki
Host of CBC TV’s “The Nature of Things”, chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, and author of Good News for a Change and Sacred Balance |
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| Even a novice will like this one! |
| Well, I have never picked up a fishing rod before in my life and was quite dubious when someone gave me a copy of this book for my birthday. |
| However, I am interested in how we go about managing our natural resources. Dead Fish and Fat Cats is an amazing journey that examines how Canada has mismanaged its fisheries, surely one of its most precious natural resources. It is interesting, thou not suprising to take a journey through the bureaucracy that seems to plague the Department of Fisheries in Canada. |
| It seems that Eric Wickham, while clearly a professional fisherman, not a professional writer has a passion for the preservation of this resource. His passion while evident is not over stated and it is this that makes the book very readable. It left this reader shaking his head and saying "how could they do that". |
Additionally, Wickham, unlike so many of us who complain about the state of things, actually proposes a solution and gives us a great example of how the fisheries should be managed. The success of the Black Cod fishery is evidence that brain wins over braun.
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| Read it, I am sure that you will enjoy it. |
Steve Karp
Sydney, Australia
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| Finally... the truth! |
| This is a book we have been waiting for. It is not action packed and sensationalized like the 'Perfect Storm', but that is not what Eric Wickham's book is about. It is very well written and thought out, and makes for an easy read in it's story book style. Only it's not just a story... this book shows the true picture of what really has happened to the once prolific commercial fisheries along the North West Coast of the United States and Canada. |
| Eric Wickham is not afraid to call it like it is, and lay blame where blame is due. He recounts events about bureaucratic decisions and practices that led to the demise of these fisheries and aptly calls it "drastically dysfunctional" management. |
| With 50 years of commercial fishing experience, his knowledge is factual and enlightening. The only fault that I could find in this book is the author's narrow-mindedness towards the small dragger boats. He needs to research this fishery more before he makes the statements he made about their effects on the fishery. These small boats are capable of fishing with minimal environmental impact while keeping the fishery viable and sustainable, just the same as the fisheries that Mr. Wickham participated in. Many of these smaller boats work in the same manner as Mr. Wickham... near shore, supporting the local communities, and providing fresh caught seafood for stores and restaurants. |
| I hope that Mr. Wickham enjoys his well earned retirement in Australia and considers writing more books about his life experiences as a commercial fisherman along the North Eastern Pacific Ocean. With 25 years of experience in the commercial fishing industry myself, I am grateful for Eric Wickham's book and I would like to personally thank him for writing it and getting the truth out there for everyone to read. |
| It has been a sad and frustrating ordeal for us to watch our livelihoods taken away by bureaucracy that is based on politics and has nothing to do with factual data. Before Eric Wickham's book only those of us in the industry have experienced the havoc that this mismanagement has produced, now maybe many others will read and understand. It is truly the end of an era and a lifestyle. |
| I highly recommend this book to everyone... it is engaging reading, enlightening, and thought provoking. |
Lee Ann Hightower
F/V Sea Otter
Port Townsend, WA USA |
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