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Bezig met laden... The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography Of Desire (origineel 2005; editie 2005)door Richard Adams Carey
Informatie over het werkThe Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire door Richard Adams Carey (2005)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. The author explores sturgeon through the west's curiosity and desire for caviar. He explores it from every angle: aquaculture, conservation, history, fishing, piracy and gastronomy. While the sturgeon stands out as a fascinating subject, I found the author's desire to jump from theme to theme every few pages incredibly frustrating and it ultimately took away from the book's readability. ( ) The thrilling, elegantly written crime-story, travelogue, history and adventures of a 250-million year old fish that has 4, 8 or 16 chromosomes. Yes, of course it is about caviar as well, as the inventor of the word “ecology” and founder of the Sierra Club himself John Muir said, way back in the 1800s, “you follow the money” and the money, in caviars case, leads to the death and extinction of one of the world’s greatest fish, the sturgeon. The attempts to save the endangered species of the world, from man’s grasping greed, are nearly all sad stories with very unhappy endings. The importance of the sturgeon is not in the “black gold” of caviar alone, not the jaded palates of our Gatsby’s, but in its links to our own evolution and understanding. Carey undertook research in the sturgeons waters from Florida’s Suwannee River – where my wife had the privilege of seeing a sturgeon leap like a mackerel – to the weirdness and corruption of Turkmenistan. This book has been built upon very much boots-on-the ground research, which yielded facts, characters and experiences that made the author weep. It is only a story about a fish … and a scaly monstrous, dragon-like beast at that … but the pathos of this animal’s slaughter – still only rated as ”Threatened” despite its poaching and poisoning – is truly heart rending. Will we continue to choose oil and dams, with their attendant pollution, theft and corruption, which cater to mankind’s need for instant gratification, or do we, somehow, somewhere, find resources for these endangered species which are “for ever” as peoples as diverse as Native Americans and Caspian Sea fisherman plead? A very powerful, well written book that will give any reader food for thought, particularly if they love caviar!
In relating all this, Carey introduces some charming characters, from Petrossian’s head buyer, Eve Vega, to crusading lawyer biologist Frank Chapman. As for the subtitle, don’t be skeptical: this really is a book about desire. It’s about how Americans balance supply and demand, how “we discipline ourselves to measure our desires against finite means.” As such, it’s a book about America in microcosm.
Since the days of the Persian empire, caviar has trumpeted status, wealth, prestige, and sex appeal. Today it goes for up to one hundred dollars an ounce, and aficionados will go to extraordinary lengths to get their fill of it. According to acclaimed writer Richard Adams Carey, that's just the problem. In this spectacular jaunt, Carey immerses himself in the world of sturgeon, the fish that lays these golden eggs. What he finds is disturbing. Sturgeon population worldwide have declined 70 percent in the last twenty years, most drastically in the Caspian Sea. The beluga sturgeon, producer of the most coveted caviar, has climbed to number four on the World Wildlife Fund's most-endangered species list. Armed with a novelist's eye for human eccentricity and an investigator's nose for trouble Carey takes us on an illuminating journey across the globe to uncover, the secrets of the sturgeon. On that trek we meet the fascinating real-life characters both profiting from its scarcity and fighting to save it. A high-stakes cocktail of business, diplomacy, technology, and espionage, "The Philosopher Fish is, at its heart, the epic story of a 250-million year-old fish struggling to survive. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)597.42Natural sciences and mathematics Zoology Cold-blooded vertebrates, fishes Ganoidei: Sturgeons, garpikes, etc.LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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