cover image Overfishing: 
What Everyone Needs to Know

Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know

Ray Hilborn, with Ulrike Hilborn. Oxford Univ., $16.95 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-0-19-979814-8

Organized as a series of questions and answers, this small book may not captivate, but it does provide an overview, supported with detailed facts, of the state of fisheries in the U.S. and abroad. Writing with his wife, Hilborn, a professor of aquatic and fisheries science at the University of Washington, aims to guide readers “through the scientific, political, and ethical issues of harvesting fish from the ocean.” He defines basic terms like “sustainable harvest” and “collapsed fishery” and explains more complex concepts such as growth overfishing vs. recruitment overfishing, addresses such issues as the viability of harvesting whales and the importance of habitat, details various management systems and their relative successes, and reveals, through the history of orange roughy management, just how little we know about what goes on in the ocean, as well as the difficulty of managing fish in international waters. Along the way, he offers some fun facts—who knew that the ear bones of fish have annual growth rings similar to trees’ that can determine their age? The book’s careful, somewhat pedantic tone may be off-putting, but for those who want to understand the way fisheries are studied, evaluated, and regulated, as well as their current health and future prospects, it gives the basics in a short, relatively painless read. (Apr.)