Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know®

Ray Hilborn's commonsensical 2012 book "Overfishing" is a necessary and carefully reasoned corrective to the apocalyptic rhetoric that sometimes accompanies environmentalist debates about the status and future of fishing. Hilborn, an experienced authority on fishing resource managemente and conservation, uses a highly readable question-and-answer format to define terms and provide context to the complex challenge of maintaining fish stocks and fisheries around the world.In sixteen concise chapters and just one hundred forty pages, Hilborn addresses such topics as the different types of overfishing and why the definitions matter, some historical background, and the proven ways that fisheries can be better managed. In the process, he goes behind the headlines to look at feasible solutions to overfishing that must vary by geography, climate, species and human governance. He notes the current shortfalls and challenges in gathering accurate data on fish populations. He also addresses the additional challenge of illegal fishing and the impact of recreational fishing. His concluding chapters offer some key takeaways on the future of managed fisheries. "Overfishing" is highly recommeded to those interested in fisheries management.

Very good at explaining the basic concepts. The part on fishing quotas the clearest description of how they work and what the issues are that I've seen.It does not go deep into issues, not does it intend to. The perspective is pro-commercial fishing but is aware of the trade-offs that have to be made.I think he is still too optimistic about our ability to successfully manage fisheries. Scientific management and the concept of 'maximum sustainable yield" has a track record of failure going back to the 50s. Today's scientists think they now have fishery management figured out, but that is small comfort.

This book discusses fishing in regards to the "maximum sustainable yield". This means the maximum yield that can be sustained, given today's fish populations. It nearly entirely disregards the catastrophic population reductions that have occurred over the past few centuries. Today's populations are as little as less than one percent of the populations that existed 500 years ago. Many creatures are extinct or severely endangered. "Overfishing, What everyone needs to know" seems to me to be a blatant attempt to convince people everything is okay, when almost nothing actually is.For a more accurate overview of the situation, I recommend these books: The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World The Unnatural History of the Sea Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell In addition to the inaccurate assessment of the state of the world's fisheries, much of this book has such poor grammar that it is almost nonsensical. It makes me wonder whether the author used nonsense to deliberately obfuscate the issues he's trying to describe.Overall, I found this book insulting to my intelligence and the good work of researchers around the world.

I bought this because my ESL student is attending an International Fisheries conference where one of the keynote speakers is Ray Hilborn.We are studying it together and I find it well written & informative! Very interesting! English is my first language and it's written in a wonderful, informative style. I think ESL persons need at least an intermediate to advanced level of English comprehension to grasp the book in its entirety.

This is a really good primer for anyone interested in or studying fisheries management. It gives a very general introduction to all the issues. The discussion of marine protected areas and protected species is rather limited and could be rounded out. However, it's an easy read and thoughtful overview of all the major issues facing global fisheries

Ray Hilborn explanes the actual status ofoverfishing, how it began and how the actualfishery managers deal with it.He shows that more and more fisheries worldwideare fished using maximum sustainable yield. Butthere is still some concern and we have to continulimiting the world wide fishing capacity and the fishing pressure.Wonderful book, that everyone should read.

Thank you - item as expected

Good book. Doesn't derive it's information from subjectiveness and emotions like organizations GreenPeace & PETA.Considers fishery related topics logically and realistically.Easy read, and not very long. Keeps you interested.

Before reading this book I thought overfishing had a singular definition, but Ray Hilborn shows us that there are many definitions for overfishing, depending on which criteria you apply.Written in a Q&A style, this book is neither a dry, academic, tome or a tub-thumping, environmentalist vision of an oceanic apolcolypse, but lays out the issues in an easy to digest form.Looking at the global fisheries industry, Ray Hilborn's experience and expertise are clearly evident on every page, covering a wide spectrum of topics, from historical overfishing to illegal fishing, from economic overfishing to marine protected areas.If you are looking for a clear, concise book on the causes and effects of, and possible solutions to, overfishing, I would highly recommend this one.

This is a timely introduction to one of the most high profile and intractable problems in the management of natural resources, designed for the general reader. The underlying theme of the first three chapters is overfishing and recovery of fisheries. The next three chapters deal with key factors involved, including management, levels of fishing effort generated by development pressures, and climate. There follows systematic evaluation of types of fisheries - mixed, High Seas, deep water, recreational, and small scale and artisanal. Particular impacts are then dealt with, including illegal fishing,trawling, Marine Protected Areas, and ecosystem impacts. The book concludes with an assessment of the current status of overfishing. Particular strengths of the book include a clear, accessible style, short chapters, subhead themes often expressed as questions, and highly selected further reading organised by chapter.

purchased this book for an assignment i received at uni, provided a great deal of information on the dangers of over fishing. id recommend this book to anyone studying marine biology or anyone who has an interest in over fishing

Ray Hilborn is one of the most respected fisheries scientists in the world and is unusual in that he has not jumped on the gloom/doom bandwagon funded by various international NGOs. Here he presents a lucid and balanced view of fisheries based on decades of experience in the field. His opinion is generally that while there are and have been problems, the fishing industry is getting its house in order. He points out that if we take fish out of the sea there will be fewer than there would be if we did not. Effective fisheries management needs to get the balance between impact and extraction correct. He suggests that eating fish is more environmentally friendly than eating beef, dairy products or lamb and points out the damage that farming does to land in terms of biodiversity loss is greater than that of any fishing activity. The book is written in such a way that anyone interested in the issues around fisheries, from lay-person to scientist will enjoy reading it. The text is uncluttered by the usual referencing style of scientific writing but there is an extensive, chapter by chapter, further reading section at the end of the book.

Overfishing is a short primer on fisheries and fishery management written by Ray Hilborn with his wife Ulrike. Hilborn is arguably the most important fishery scientist today and has been engaged in debate with those who have been forecasting the aquacalypse: a fishless ocean by the middle of this century. This book serves the useful purpose of debunking some of the more extreme claims of the prophets of doom and provides a tidy if all too brief overview of world fisheries for a general audience. It starts with the basics – e.g., the different types of overfishing – and then examines what is being done right and what is being done wrong. Some fisheries are poorly managed, but more are not. I am currently using it for a class on sustainable ecology and it is the perfect introduction to the complex issues of fishery management. But this is a book that should be read by more than just university students – anyone concerned with where their food comes from and whether it is managed sustainably should pick up a copy.