Nature is full of instances where populations grow at phenomenal rates and then crash when the food source is used up. Everything from lowly moths, dependent on forests, to birds of prey that depend on a growing rodent population; grow and crash based on food sources.
We, humans, think we are immune.
Cod by Mark Kulansky is a wonderfully, fresh book; one part history, two parts environmental prose, to one part recipe book. It tells the tale of the lowly cod; starting at the beginning of time, following the course of human history as each and every place that human civilization has gone has affected cod populations. Cod was once bountiful fish in all parts of the world.
The tale explains the impact we have had on the cod with the advent of factory ships. We are shown how the factory ships work, why we take so many fish, the ultimate impact of the over-fishing for us and the rest of the animals of the earth.
This book can be read in a weekend and it's not just about fish. It's about everything lovers of nature and the natural world care about. But most of all it's about how humans are more like deer than we even realize.
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