On Wednesday, November 18th at 4:00pm PST Warwick's will host Mark Kurlansky as he discusses his new book, Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate, in conversation with Neil Senturia. Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of Havana, Cod, Salt, Paper, The Basque History of the World, 1968, The Big Oyster, and Milk!, among other titles. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appetit's Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award. His articles have appeared in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The International Herald Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Partisan Review, Harper's, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Audubon Magazine, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and Parade. He lives in New York City.
"Henry David Thoreau wrote, 'Who hears the fishes when they cry?' Maybe we need to go down to the river bank and try to listen."
In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon.
During his research Kurlansky traveled widely and observed salmon and those who both pursue and protect them in the Pacific and the Atlantic, in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, and even the robust but not as frequently visited Kamchatka Peninsula. This world tour reveals an eras-long history of man's misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon and its environments for his own benefit and gain, whether for entertainment or to harvest food.
In addition, Kurlansky's research shows that all over the world these fish, uniquely connected to both marine and terrestrial ecology as well as fresh and salt water, are a natural barometer for the health of the planet. He documents that for centuries man's greatest assaults on nature, from overfishing to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, are evidenced in the sensitive life cycle of salmon.
With stunning historical and contemporary photographs and illustrations throughout, Kurlansky's insightful conclusion is that the only way to save salmon is to save the planet and, at the same time, the only way to save the planet is to save the mighty, heroic salmon.
Neil Senturia is CEO of Blackbird Ventures, a small venture fund that is focused on very early stage companies. He is a motivational speaker and also volunteers as a business teacher at Donovan State Prison, where he helps implement entrepreneurship, employment, and leadership training programs that serve people with criminal histories. Neil has also taught entrepreneurship at San Diego State University (in the MBA program) as well as at UC San Diego's Von Liebig School of entrepreneurism in the Division of Engineering. He is author of three books and writes a weekly column on entrepreneurship for the San Diego Union Tribune.
