Giant Bluefin

This elegantly written and compelling work portrays the way the Japanese demand for giant bluefin tuna has altered the lives of Cape Cod fishermen. In telling the story of one man's passionate hunt for giant bluefin, Douglas Whynott details the competition and camaraderie in the bluefin fishery, the pressures of a conservationist movement seeking to limit the bluefin harvest, and the struggle of the fisherman himself against "the wild horses of [the] fish species."

Douglas Whynott is also the author of Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeeper (1991). He teaches English and writing at Mount Holyoke College, and lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

"Whynott's superb report on the bluefin harpoon fishery takes readers to the old whaling grounds off Cape Cod and shows that the adventure and controversy associated with that extinct American industry survive today, on boats with names like Scratcher, Back Off, and Tenacious."--The New Yorker

"Whynott portrays these "true sons of the whalers of old" with sympathy and understanding in a book filled with depth and drama."--Andrea Barrett, Outside