Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I personally found this to be an extremely fascinating read. The book of course is about eels; a fish that we really know very little about. But the book covers so much more that just this primary subject.
The author takes us from the United States, to New Zeeland and on to the orient and then the Polynesian Island. This work is not merely the study of a specific species of fish; it is also the study of a number of indigenous peoples around the world and their interaction with eels, both as a food source and that of a spiritual nature.
This work takes us unto the world of eels; eels as food, eels as religious symbols (for more than one culture) and eels as another indicator of the problems we are having in our environment.
The author has done what I would consider a good job on his research, but must admit that my endorsement in this area is rather shaky, as I knew absolutely nothing of eels before reading this work. My only encounter with one of their tribe is when I accidently caught on fishing near the coast in Virginia a number of years ago and spent ten minutes dancing around like my head was in fire trying to figure out how I was going to get the thing off the hook without injuring either the eel or myself. Anyway, I took the author's word as to the facts and figures he presented.
The book is well written and is an easy and enjoyable read. My only objection to the work, an this is purely personal, is that I would have like to have read a bit more about the actual eels and less about their impact on some of the cultures addressed in the book. Others may find this a good thing though.
As with most books of this nature lately, I finished it and found myself more than a bit depressed. It would seem that we humans are mucking up the world of eels and if things keep going in the current direction, we may soon only be able to read about yet another extinct animal.
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
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Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish
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