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King Of Fish The ThousandYear Run of Salmon David Montgomery 9780813341477 Books

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King Of Fish The ThousandYear Run of Salmon David Montgomery 9780813341477 Books

In King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon, author David Montgomery analyzes the decline, in many cases the near extirpation, of once-abundant salmon fisheries in Great Britain and northern Europe, in New England and Canada, and in the Pacific Northwest. First published in 2003, the book is still fresh and relevant, an engrossing read, chock full of information, and ending with practical insights and a call to action.

The key theme of King of Fish, which the author thoroughly documents, is that the historic decline of salmon stocks has not occurred because people didn’t know any better or because they just didn’t care. Instead, the depredation of the fishery happened despite the best efforts of thoughtful people and bodies politic to protect and preserve them. How could this be?

When fisheries management and conservation have clashed with financial interests in development and exploitation, the salmon have consistently lost – not every single time, but often enough that the incremental and inexorable accumulation of individual short-term decisions has eroded and whittled away salmon populations and habitats to the point that they collapsed.

Montgomery demonstrates through numerous examples that you can literally bank on the economic value of fish harvest or hydropower or irrigation or any number of other ephemeral interests to outweigh the uncertainties and risk-based arguments on the other side.

There is a systemic imbalance in these interests that all but guarantees that the fish will lose whenever decision making is left to local interests. There are only two notable exceptions: pre-industrial Britain, when royal authority provided a respite from overfishing, and Alaska, where federal regulation has provided a significant measure of protection for salmon interests.

Montgomery sums it up neatly: “One of the most obvious lessons of past experience is that local control rarely protects salmon over the long run without direction from a higher authority, whether the king, a federal agency, or, as for Native Americans, the Creator through deeply ingrained cultural practices.” (230) That is the lesson taught by the global history of salmon. Will we learn from it?

The King of Fish is just as informative and thought provoking today as when it was first published. And its core lesson that laws and regulations, and centralized authority to back them up, are needed to restrain unfettered exploitation of natural resources, has applications far beyond salmon. It is the story of conservation writ large, with obvious analogies to effective public policy on climate change, fracking, wilderness preservation and a host of similar issues.


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King Of Fish The ThousandYear Run of Salmon David Montgomery 9780813341477 Books Reviews

Easy to read. A history book. Gives you a flavor of the debate. Cons biased. Does not tell you that salmon stocks are resilient, if you give them a chance. Filters the positive. For example, that hatcherys are not all bad, though it's true historically they started out as a way to supplement commercial fisheries. For example, that roughly as many salmon stock (a river by river analysis) surveyed in Alaska are increasing as are declining (about 6% each) while the rest is stable. True, that is Alaska and the book is primarily about the Pacific NW, with digressions about Atlantic salmon and the salmon formerly found in Europe.

Prose is well done, conversational. Perhaps a bit of the author's ego can be seen when he talks about his interaction with his beloved dog a lot. But this is not a dry, scientific tome,and most readers are better for it.

You can also get hard info on salmon off the web, just by searching the web, but this book packages this info, filters it somewhat to give a weepy, sad conclusion, and is more interesting to read than a dry report. Book has an excellent illustrated family tree of Salmon too, which is worth the price of the book.

Recommended as a dreary but not entirely inaccurate portrait of salmon.
well written description of why we NW Salmon stocks are deteriorating. Looking through the lens of this book being written in 2003 it is proving to be accurate.
If you have any interest at all in the preservation of salmon, this book is a must-read. The history of our abuse of this magnificent family of fish is more than scary. Read this and take action!
Interesting book if you’re a fish person. Having spent years in the Alaska fishing industry I found it to be a very interesting and informative read.
Read this book with fellow Whale Scouts (volunteer naturalists facilitating land-based whale watching and doing habitat restoration). His writing was beautifully researched and well crafted, making what could have been just dry data, a compelling story. It impressed on me how history repeats itself, and unless we heed the lessons, we're on course to drive wild salmon, once plentiful here in the Pacific Northwest, to extinction.
This was a fascinating book on the history of salmon. It is the age old story of history repeating itself. I had no idea that Europe's rivers were full of salmon throughout the centuries until misuse and neglect of the rivers, as well as overfishing, destroyed most of the runs. Same story on the east and west coast of the United States. Overfishing on the high seas is addressed to some extent. Salmon history in Alaska is still being written, so information is limited in the book, but from what I've seen, we have not yet learned our lesson. Not being of a scientific mind, for me the book got a little tedious towards the end, but still a great book with valuable information.
Great, accessible history and analysis of British and North American human interaction with salmon. In many ways the story is an excellent puzzle piece, connecting various other historical narratives spanning time from the Middle Ages through present with a focus on post 18th century events. The book is not a about pointing fingers but rather about understanding the decisions and actions that have led to the current state of salmon fishing and lay out options for the future. While it lagged a bit for me in the middle, it is pretty short and the beginning and end move rather quickly. While not prize winning prose, the author makes a discernible attempt (successfully) to liven up what could otherwise have been a dry timeline of legislative history and interpretation of social factors affecting salmon fishing.
In King of Fish The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon, author David Montgomery analyzes the decline, in many cases the near extirpation, of once-abundant salmon fisheries in Great Britain and northern Europe, in New England and Canada, and in the Pacific Northwest. First published in 2003, the book is still fresh and relevant, an engrossing read, chock full of information, and ending with practical insights and a call to action.

The key theme of King of Fish, which the author thoroughly documents, is that the historic decline of salmon stocks has not occurred because people didn’t know any better or because they just didn’t care. Instead, the depredation of the fishery happened despite the best efforts of thoughtful people and bodies politic to protect and preserve them. How could this be?

When fisheries management and conservation have clashed with financial interests in development and exploitation, the salmon have consistently lost – not every single time, but often enough that the incremental and inexorable accumulation of individual short-term decisions has eroded and whittled away salmon populations and habitats to the point that they collapsed.

Montgomery demonstrates through numerous examples that you can literally bank on the economic value of fish harvest or hydropower or irrigation or any number of other ephemeral interests to outweigh the uncertainties and risk-based arguments on the other side.

There is a systemic imbalance in these interests that all but guarantees that the fish will lose whenever decision making is left to local interests. There are only two notable exceptions pre-industrial Britain, when royal authority provided a respite from overfishing, and Alaska, where federal regulation has provided a significant measure of protection for salmon interests.

Montgomery sums it up neatly “One of the most obvious lessons of past experience is that local control rarely protects salmon over the long run without direction from a higher authority, whether the king, a federal agency, or, as for Native Americans, the Creator through deeply ingrained cultural practices.” (230) That is the lesson taught by the global history of salmon. Will we learn from it?

The King of Fish is just as informative and thought provoking today as when it was first published. And its core lesson that laws and regulations, and centralized authority to back them up, are needed to restrain unfettered exploitation of natural resources, has applications far beyond salmon. It is the story of conservation writ large, with obvious analogies to effective public policy on climate change, fracking, wilderness preservation and a host of similar issues.