Giant Bluefin - by Douglas Whynott (Paperback)

About the Book

The bluefin tuna is the largest finfish in the ocean--as much as ten feet long, weighing up to 1,500 pounds. In Japan, where raw bluefin meat is a great delicacy, a single fish can bring $30,000. In this stirring account of a heroic, embattled way of life, Whynott details the competition and camaraderie among the fishermen, and their battle with conservationists who wish to limit the bluefin harvest.

Book Synopsis

This elegantly written and compelling work portrays the way the Japanese demand for giant bluefin tuna has altered the lives of Cape Cod fishermen.

In telling the story of one man's passionate hunt for giant bluefin, Douglas Whynott's Giant Bluefin details the competition and camaraderie in the bluefin fishery, the pressures of a conservationist movement seeking to limit the bluefin harvest, and the struggle of the fisherman himself against "the wild horses of [the] fish species."

Review Quotes

"Whynott's superb report on the bluefin harpoon fishery takes readers to the old whaling grounds off Cape Cod and shows that the adventure and controversy associated with that extinct American industry survive today, on boats with names like Scratcher, Back Off, and Tenacious." --The New Yorker

"Whynott portrays these "true sons of the whalers of old" with sympathy and understanding in a book filled with depth and drama." --Andrea Barrett, Outside

About the Author

Douglas Whynott is the author of Following the Bloom, Giant Bluefin, and A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time. He lives near Hanover, New Hampshire, and directs the M.F.A. writing program at Emerson College in Boston.