| Title | : | Tuna: A Love Story |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0307267156 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780307267153 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 334 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2008 |
The longest migrator of any fish species, an Atlantic northern bluefin can travel from New England to the Mediterranean, then turn around and swim back; in the Pacific, the northern bluefin can make a round-trip journey from California to Japan. The fish can weigh in at 1,500 pounds and, in an instant, pick up speed to fifty-five miles per hour.
But today the fish is the target of the insatiable sushi market, particularly in Japan, where an individual piece can go for seventy-five dollars. Ellis introduces us to the high-stakes world of “tuna ranches,” where large schools of half-grown tuna are caught in floating corrals and held in pens before being fattened, killed, gutted, frozen, and shipped to the Asian market. Once on the brink of bankruptcy, the world’s tuna ranches—in Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and North Africa—have become multimillion-dollar enterprises. Experts warn that the fish are dying out and environmentalists lobby for stricter controls, while entire coastal ecosystems are under threat. The extinction of the tuna would mean not only the end of several species but dangerous consequences for the earth as a whole.
In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky’s Cod, John Cole’s Striper, John Hersey’s Blues—and of course, Ellis’s own Great White Shark—this book will forever change the way we think about fish and fishing.
Tuna: A Love Story Reviews
-
Interesting but repetitive. Not enough true substance. Lots of quoting and lots of the same exact story or the same exact fact just repeated in a slightly different manner. And yet there was pretty good coverage of the subject - especially around Tuna as a fish and Tuna ranching. I would have preferred more details in almost all areas. I would have liked to have seen even more technical details on the Tuna species themselves. Definitely not up to the level of say
Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World . -
A little repetitive at times. Well researched but constant quoting can take away from the narrative. Was hoping for something a little more polemical but he puts for a pretty convincing case at the devastating state of the world's fisheries.
-
When my now adult son was three, he wanted to be a tuna for Halloween. He'd seen a Magic Schoolbus episode, I think, in which the tuna was celebrated as the astounding fish it is...a quarter ton of evolutionary perfection, a creature capable of swimming at over fifty miles and hour.
This book celebrates that great fish, and laments our greed and hubris-addled destruction of most tuna species. The book itself is well written, and engaging, with a significant caveat. As most reviewers noted, it's more than a little repetitious. The same data is presented, then presented again, then presented again, as if the book was initially written as a series of essays for different publications. I started skimming, but carried on to the concluding essay. As a vegetarian who grounds that choice in my faith, I found that particularly relevant.
A three point four. -
This book had a lot of fascinating nuggets of information about tuna sprinkled throughout. However, much of the writing was repetitive, self-satisfied, and boring.
-
I really wanted to like this book. As a person who was a big fan of "Cod", I was hoping this would be a similar look into the history and forward momentum of the Tuna fishing industry. I got through the first 2 chapters and decided to put it down.
I'm from a science background, so I think this book was just too juvenile for me. Despite it's length, much of the author's prose is quoting others, repetition, and completely irrelevant facts. He even goes so far as to explain the latin species naming conventions. It ends up feeling like he's being paid by the word. This is clearly written for folks who have no biology background whatsoever, but also includes, at times, far too much detail for those who are just diving into this world.
Didn't finish. Alas. -
Full of facts and figures about the devastation of the worldwide Tuna population, in the years since the fish were upgraded from cat-food-only or emergency rations for the poor, to the world's priciest and most-sought-after sashimi ingredient. Not a lot of evidence of love in here for these remarkable fish -- even the auhor fails to really capture the essense of why he thinks Tuna are so great, the way he did so beautifully in his book about the Giant Squid. He quotes Zane Grey, who did a better job, but that was a brief pinnacle of purple prose...
-
This book is about the Tuna, as you might have guessed. It is specifically about the Bluefin Tuna, the most overfished Tuna in the oceans, but he does have some bits about other tuna breeds: the Yellowfin, the Albacore, Blackfin, and Skipjack. He writes mostly about Bluefin Tuna in the scope of very large-scale fishing by nets, farms, and longlines. He explains how it is that almost all of the Bluefin end up in Japan and how Japan circumvents the laws designed to minimize the impact of overfishing on the Bluefin population. He also writes about the huge fish market in Tokyo and finally about some efforts to restore the Bluefin population by captive breeding.
I don't remember why I wanted to read this book but I can't really recommend it unless you are really into fishing or Tuna or both. As it was, I found myself skimming through sections of the book and reading bits and pieces. A lot of the material is very repetitive. A lot of the material is very repetitive. Seriously, how many times does he need to explain longline fishing or fish farming? It's also very dull and sometimes feels like a textbook. I had to keep reminding myself that there was no test at the end.
There were bits and pieces that were interesting, but those could have been boiled down to a small pamphlet. -
A compelling read which easily convinces one about the dangers that society faces if it continues to use our natural resources at this alarming rate. Whether or not Tuna will ever be successfully farmed, as opposed to ranched which still depletes the wild resource, may decide the fate of this particular eating frenzy. As other reviewers have pointed out, Mr Ellis tends to repeat himself throughout the book, but this may be for the best as it drives home some of his major points quite effectively. It is a long read but very interesting and has put me off tuna based sushi and sashimi for ever!
-
This book is fascinating, yet repetitive. This book describes some interesting things over and over. The author repeats himself. It feels like you read the same amazing stories again and again, with just a few different words. (See what I did there?)
-
Technically, this has the information I was looking for about tuna as an animal and the various moving parts of the tuna industry. 🐟 However, I found the writing dry and thought it relied on long quotations of other works too much.
-
Who knew tuna could be so interesting? The photos were great, as well.
-
To most people, tuna isn't a fish, but rather a food item that comes in a can, disconnected from anything it might've been in life, to be mixed with celery and mayonnaise, or served on a plate with wasabi, without requirement of further contemplation. To Richard Ellis (and other biologists like him), though, the tuna is a masterpiece of evolution, the most perfectly adapted creature on earth, a wonder to behold. And it turns out that this wonder is in serious (immanent, even) danger of being wiped off the face of the planet.
In this book, Ellis's anger and passion are palpable, and you can't help but become wrought with emotion. His prose is fast-moving and he makes even relatively dry facts about tuna and the tuna fishery come to life. Prior to this, the best wide-angle tome on the destruction of sea life for man's supposed gain was
Farley Mowatt's
Sea of Slaughter, and the best that attempted to summarize the same using a single-species microcosm easily could've been the same author's
A Whale for the Killing. Believe it or not, Ellis has put his skills to use here to outdo both in one fell swoop. He combines Mowatt's emotion with a degree of technical accuracy and academic formality (i.e. sources!) that Mowatt didn't come close to.
I would sooner recommend this to rile up the masses than I would
Rachel Carson's
The Silent Spring. At 300 pages, it's a relatively quick read, and it packs in just about everything you need to know. If we are to measure non-fiction books by how much information we've learned about the subject of the book when finished reading, combined by how engaging the delivery was, then A Love Story gets full marks. -
This is a great book - if you are an ichthyologist. This book will inform you of everything and anything you would want to know about Tuna. There are certain parts of this book that remind me of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick". A great story, but his laborious description of whales brought many a reader to their knees.
Why would I want to read this book?
Well, I have heard stories about how great this fish is, and how we are fishing it to extinction. The book does a very good job of telling this part of the story, It is hidden in the parts that would only interest an ichthyologist.
The Tuna, at one time, was probably the most numerous fish in the ocean. It is facing extinction mainly due to man's appitite for sushi and sashimi. The demand for it is so great in Japan that a single tune can sell for "173,600.00. This means that a plate of tuna slices would cost around $100.00.
The agency that was set up to control the overfishing for tuna has proven to be completely ineffective and has set catch limits to the point of ensuring the tuna's extinction.
Tuna farming is also a problem because they capture live tuna to be put in a farm fattening, and thereby taking breeding stock out of the ocean.
The question becomes, why would those dependent on this food and money source be willing to let it die. The answer comes in two forms, the first being the astronomical money that can be made, and second is the feeling, if I don't fish for tuna somebody else will.
There are some good parts to this book, but I have to admit that overall I found it difficult to read. I was looking for a book that zeroed more on the plight of the tuna and what we can do to preserve it. The book has that element but it is lost in the technicallity of the book. This was definately not written for the average reader. -
Everything you always wanted to know about tuna. Because of the popularity of tuna as a food fish, especially in Japan where it is prized as sushi, it is now on the brink of extinction. The seas have been overfished, and now "tuna ranches"--similar to cattle feed lots--have become multimillion dollar businesses.
Ellis addresses the importance of tuna to the global economy, the ocean ecosystems, and as a food and sport fish. No longer will you take the ubiquitous can of tuna for granted. Great insights into how humans are driving fish and the fishing industry into extinction. -
This book contains a lot of useful information. The major topics regarding bluefin tuna are reasonably addressed; namely, the life cycle and distribution of the fish, the history of the tuna fisheries, the effect of the Japanese sashimi market, current health concerns, and its current conservation status.
Unfortunately the book is unevenly edited and poorly organized. Ellis circles back to the same themes over and over again, sometimes even telling the same stories in different chapters. This makes for rather tedious reading and is the main reason the book is only getting three stars. -
I enjoyed the research the author did writing this book. I felt I learned a lot about a creature I knew very little of and enjoyed the history and passion he portrayed in his writing. The only reason I didn't give a better rating had to do with how repetitive it was. Despite my enjoyment of the book, there were a lot of times I found myself struggling to push through facts that were repeated, sometimes across several chapters. Despite that, I'd still recommend it to anyone who is a patient reader and wants to know more about this all too amazing animal.
-
Non-fiction but read like an engaging PBS special. Pretty disheartening to learn about how this blue fin tuna is almost extinct because of human's unwillingness to learn how to share and care for the world. When did the morals we learned in Preschool become obsolete?
If you have to eat sushi, learn about what you are eating and where it is coming from. Make informed decisions. Don't be a Goofus when it comes to the environment and the world. Be a Gallant! -
@ Weber.
I heard an interview on NPR with the author. He was soooooo totally excited about tuna that he got me totally enthused too!
Did you know that in 40 degree water a tuna can raise it's own body temp to 80 degrees? That is remarkable! When I was little my mom always made me wear my coat. I don't know why, but wearing a coat when it was 20 degrees outside was SO super embarrassing. I guess tuna children don't have to have that same fight with their tuna mothers. -
This is a very engaging book on the plight of the tuna. I had the opportunity to hear Mr Ellis speak the other day and he was adamant about not eating tuna at all any more..not that he doesn't love to eat it, but due to the dangerously high mercury content of the fish.
-
I was shocked to learn how overfished the Bluefin tuna is, and the very real danger to the world's future fish supply. However, the book is full of mind-numbing statistics, which makes it a difficult book for me to appreciate.
-
A must read for tuna lovers and anyone interested in or concerned for the worlds oceans and ocean life - also talks about the worlds tuna fisheries from a business standpoint. Very interesting and informative, written for the lay-person.
-
Just heard a half hour interview with the author. This seems like a book for anyone who like the ocean, fish, sushi, etc. Can't wait to pick it up.
-
another episode of the strange stories behind our food. Bluefin tuna farms, tokyo fish markets, tuna cowboys...it's all here. Did a segment with Ellis on Science Friday back in September.
-
I think there is a very good story buried in here somewhere. But this was poorly organized and needed to be seriously edited down. He repeats himself a lot.
