Fishing

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Jesse is a young girl who lives in British Columbia. Her father works
there as a fish conservation officer. Some days he takes her out to see
the salmon spawning in mountain streams, climbing fish ladders, or being
harvested by fishing trawlers. Jesse’s grandpa runs a fish farm in
Maritime Canada. When she goes east to visit him, Grandpa shows her his
huge tanks of halibut that he raises and sells to the fish-packing
plants.

This latest volume in the Canada at Work series offers young readers an
informative look at modern fishing methods in Canada. An unfortunate
subtheme to this book, however, is how much Canada’s traditional
fishing industry has declined in Jesse’s short lifetime. On the
Atlantic coast, Jesse and her grandfather pass small fishing boats
rotting on the beach because the natural fish stocks are gone. In the
Pacific, Jesse’s father spends much of his time rationing fish quotas
to keep the salmon from being overfished. The bulk of the text describes
how science is striving to overcome decades of harm caused by pollution,
overfishing, and human greed. Excellent writing, first-class
illustrations, and an index make Fishing a good choice for school and
public libraries. Highly recommended.