This is an important book for fishermen, ocean lovers, seafood eaters, environmentalists; in fact, everyone inhabiting the Earth. The oceans are in peril. Seafood stocks are decimated. Bren Smith offers a compelling solution for cleaning up the oceans, growing enough food for a burgeoning global population and capturing enough carbon to make a difference in a climatechanging world – by growing seaweed and bivalves in a vertical ocean farm.
The book begins as a rollicking tale of Bren’s youth in Newfoundland and as a commercial fisherman in the Bering Sea, moving to a slow but dramatic evolution into his awareness of the oceans’ problems. He shares his revelation that seaweed is a nutritious, delicious, versatile superfood and writes about his creation of vertical ocean farms to grow oysters, mussels, clams and sea ‘vegetables’.
Bren’s account of this often painful and heart-wrenching process, littered with mega-storms, dodgy New York financiers and the world’s best chefs, ends up overwhelmingly positive and will make you want to give up your day job and become a restorative ocean farmer too.