Fish Decks: Seafarers of the North Atlantic, with Photos by the Author

Fishing is one of the few remaining occupations of great satisfaction, according to McCloskey ( Highliners ), a retired staff member of the Johns Hopkins University applied physics laboratory who has also been a commercial fisherman. From the decks of vessels that work the great continental shelves of the North Atlantic, he shows us Chesapeake Bay, Georges Banks off Massachusetts, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and the Lofoten Islands of Norway above the Arctic Circle. He delivers a gripping account of his experiences among the independent, vigorous men and women with whom he hauled lines and gutted fish under hand-numbing conditions. In one chapter, McCloskey reports on seal hunts he joined in 1979 and 1982, which he found rough and messy but no worse than any commercial abattoir. Pointing out a recent survey of Atlantic seals that gives evidence of overcrowding and heavy parasitic infestation, he makes a rational case for resuming the hunts. Photos. (May)