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An updated new edition of Richard Adams Carey's illuminating journey across the globe to uncover the secrets of the sturgeon, originally published in hardback in 2005.
From the acclaimed eco-journalist Rick Carey comes a fascinating chronicle of a fast-disappearing fish – and of the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on it. Since the days of the Persian Empire, caviar has trumpeted status, wealth, prestige, and sex appeal. In this remarkable journey to caviar's source, Carey immerses himself in the world of the sturgeon, the fish that lays these golden eggs. The sturgeon has a fascinating biological past – and a very uncertain future. Sturgeon populations worldwide have declined seventy per cent in the last twenty years. Meanwhile, the beluga sturgeon, producer of the most coveted caviar, has climbed to number four on the World Wildlife Fund's most-endangered species list. A high-stakes cocktail of business, crime, diplomacy, technology, and the dilemmas of conservation, The Philosopher Fish is the epic story of a 250-million-year-old fish struggling to survive.
This new edition includes new chapters bringing up to date the story of this elusive and mysterious fish, and the people involved with both preserving and exploiting it.
Preface
1. The Hero Descending
2. The World Is Not Enough
3. Flavors of the Divine Horizon
4. The People of the Sturgeon
5. Situation Unpleasant
6. A City of Water
7. Poor Man’s Lobster
8. Russian California
9. A Poetry of Place
10. The Iron in the Garden
11. Thieves World
12. The Blood of the Earth
13. A Capacity for Wonder
14. The Gilded Morsel
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
Richard Adams Carey grew up in Connecticut, attended Harvard and worked various low-paying jobs before going to teach in the Yupik Eskimo villages of western Alaska. He is a writer and book reviewer whose books include Raven’s Children: An Alaskan Culture at Twilight, Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman, and In the Evil Day: Violence Comes to One Small Town.
"A wild upstream adventure."
– New York Post
"Hard to imagine that a story about fish eggs could be 'fast paced, ' not to mention prophetic. But this piece of environmental journalism is both [...] It's a book about America in microcosm [...] Caviar, it turns out, is not just tasty. In Carey's hands, it's luminous."
– Kirkus Reviews
"Prized for its caviar-potential roe, [the sturgeon] is currently hot among both international smugglers and ecological preservationists, and right on their dorsal fins is Carey. A lyrical and humane writer, the ecojournalist patiently tracked down hatchery biologists, luxury-food buyers, wildlife agents, and others whose livelihood depends on the sturgeon. He weaves their intersecting stories into one engrossing narrative."
– Entertainment Weekly
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