cover image Silver Swimmer: The Struggle for Survival of the Wild Atlantic Salmon

Silver Swimmer: The Struggle for Survival of the Wild Atlantic Salmon

Richard Buck. Lyons Press, $35 (436pp) ISBN 978-1-55821-251-0

No sentimental paean to yet another endangered species, Buck's account of U.S. efforts to conserve the Atlantic salmon, a fish with international economic, recreational and symbolic value, is a political record with a focus on international diplomacy. The case is a classic one for environmentalists, including practical management solutions available to the countries and groups involved in the conflict. Even so, the effort to conserve and restore the North Atlantic game fish from over-exploitation developed into a 20-year series of battles in which greed, in the guise of tradition, enjoyed a tactical advantage. After a brief overview of the salmon's life-cycle (with particular attention to its most vulnerable periods), Buck, who led the Committee on the Atlantic Salmon Emergency and a later organization, Restoration of the Atlantic Salmon in America, lays out the grinding work of a mature environmental movement, documenting progress in a meeting-by-meeting, letter-by-protest-letter diary-like approach. Those who hope to ``do something'' about the environment will get a sobering and instructive view into the process from this expert chronicle. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)