American catch : the fight for our local seafood
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Author Paul Greenberg uncovers the tragic unraveling of the nation's seafood supply--telling the surprising story of why Americans stopped eating from their own waters. In 2005, the United States imported nearly twice as much seafood as twenty years earlier. Bizarrely, during that same period, our seafood exports quadrupled. Greenberg examines New York oysters, Gulf shrimp, and Alaskan salmon to reveal how this came to be. Following the trail of environmental desecration, Greenberg comes to view the New York City oyster as a reminder of what is lost when local waters are not valued as a food source. A different kind of catastrophe threatens the Gulf of Mexico: Asian-farmed shrimp have flooded the American market. Finally, a proposed mining project could undermine the spawning grounds of the biggest wild sockeye salmon run left in the world. In his search to discover why this precious resource isn't better protected, Greenberg finds the great majority of Alaskan salmon is exported. Sockeye salmon is one of the most nutritionally dense animal proteins on the planet, yet Americans are shipping it abroad. But despite the challenges, hope abounds: many are working to break the current destructive patterns of consumption and return American catch to American tables.--From publisher description.