Eat Like a Fish

March 25, 2019
Smith combines memoir and sustainability treatise with mixed success while recounting his path from a rugged youth fishing the Bering Sea to inventing 3D ocean farming, a process that harvests a mixture of shellfish and ocean greens. In addition to telling his own story, he celebrates sea greens, gives guidance on starting an ocean farm (“Keeping Your Farm Afloat”), and looks back at the history, and into the future, of ocean farming. Any of these subjects could make a book of its own, and the resulting mélange is overstuffed and disappointingly under-realized. However, the work does have its highlights, such as discussions of the positive impacts brought about by ocean farming—sustainable food production, increased employment, improved ocean water quality—and of the many, sometimes surprising, uses of seaweed in fertilizer, animal feed, and fireproofing. Smith even provides seaweed recipes for at-home experimentation, such as Barbecue Kelp and Carrots, Kelp and Cauliflower Scampi, and Kelp Butter. This uneven but sometimes rewarding work shines a needed light on a lesser-known area of sustainable agriculture.

April 15, 2019
In which a hard-living old salt sees the light and works to undo some of the damage wrought by extractive fishing, becoming a "restorative ocean farmer." "I've paid my debt to the sea," writes Smith. "I dropped out of high school to fish and spent too many nights in jail. My body is beat to hell: I crawl out of bed like a lobster most mornings." In what he deems a "long, blustery journey," he describes how he came to realize that overfishing, climate change, ocean acidification, and other forces are making it impossible to extract a living from the sea--at least the sea as it is now. Instead, he has been busily working a stretch of Long Island Sound, raising shellfish and kelp, both of which are restorative; they filter out bad stuff, attract fish, and can provide a good living for people who practice "underwater gardening." That's one term; Smith confesses that he doesn't quite know what to call what he does, with phrases like "regenerative ocean farming" preferred over the hated "aquaculture." Whatever the case, the work is inarguably restorative, and Smith harbors a big vision of lots of little oceanic farms producing tons of seaweed and hundreds of thousands of crustaceans per acre--an economic revolution, he ventures, that could create 50 million direct jobs and a whole host of related ones. The author is no purist--he allows that he has a weakness for McDonald's fish sandwiches and once lived a life of "stealing, dealing, fighting"--but it's clear that he's found a place among the back-to-the-landers, foodies, and greenies whom he might have made fun of back in the day but whom he now sees as allies in the work of "transforming fishermen into farmers." And despite his fast food jones, he closes with an inviting set of recipes, including one for fake scampi that uses kelp instead of shrimp and olive oil instead of butter, making it a vegan delight. A thoughtful and often entertaining eco-agro-pescatorial manifesto sure to inspire like-minded readers.

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Starred review from May 1, 2019

Commercial fisherman Smith longed to get back to the sea, which he'd been working since he was 14. Yet, with declining fish populations and lack of opportunities with land-based jobs, the author decided instead to become an ocean farmer and try "3D restorative ocean-farming." Seeking to grow what he could without exploiting the ocean that he loves, Smith finds himself growing and maturing during this new adventure, but not without encountering obstacles along the way. This account is both memoir and manifesto and speaks to encouragement and innovation; about how learning about the past can better inform an uncertain future. VERDICT Smith's book aims to start original and meaningful conversations about where an industry, and people, can aspire to go. It has something for everyone; indeed, that is the philosophy Smith stands behind throughout: anyone can learn and do this new type of farming. A timely topic addressed in a fresh and inspirational way.--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2019
Part memoir, part treatise on the life of a professional fisherman, part manual for the future of eating worldwide, this unique book cannot help but make readers think long and hard about the fate of the earth as it faces the challenges of global warming and the outlook for feeding the planet. A decidedly renegade youth, Smith was born and raised in Newfoundland by a pair of American expatriates. He struggled there as a fisherman until the collapse of North Atlantic cod stocks forced him to transfer his skills to the North Pacific. After detouring to law school, he started ocean farming in Long Island Sound. Despite his work being wiped out by hurricanes, he persevered and learned 3D ocean farming, raising oysters, mussels, shrimp, and seaweed. Smith has now become a visionary leader in cultivating what may turn out to be a primary source of the world's food. This is a book about a man as well as a book about an idea, simultaneously sentimental and chillingly realistic. Readers will learn more about ocean farming here than they learned about whaling from Moby Dick, and will walk away with a handful of practical, tasty seaweed recipes to boot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)