Last Fisherman: Witness to the Engangered Oceans

With breathtaking images and compelling stories, an underwater photographer chronicles the glory, and devastation, of our changing oceans. When author Jeff Rotman began his adventures as an underwater photographer more than 40 years ago, he relished the beauty of the deep sea and the thrill of the hunt. A member of an elite group of photographers, he has captured iconic photographs of sharks and other creatures of the deep that can be seen in National Geographic as well as the Discovery Channel's Shark Week television series. Rotman's passion for photographing marine life took a dramatic turn when he found a pile of sharks at the bottom of the sea stripped of their fins and left to die by rogue fisherman. The Last Fisherman documents the catastrophic changes in ocean wildlife and the people whose lives depend on hunting it. Rotman has witnessed the decimation of cod by fishermen dragging the North Atlantic and the near obliteration of the shark population in the Cocos from "longlining." His journey mirrors our view of the oceans as places of wonder, to the fragile hunting grounds they are today. In his introduction, marine biologist Les Kaufman discusses how the "emptying out of the oceans" has progressed over time. But he also includes stories of hope as scientists, fisherman--and observers like Jeff Rotman--come to agree that the time is now for a new approach to the most fundamental of human activities, finding sustenance in the water around us.