A Decktop View of Overfishing

摘要

Moored alongside the piles of discounted titles in British bookstores this summer is Redmond O'Hanlon's log of two weeks spent on a Scottish trawler. O'Hanlon is best known for his stories of careering journeys around various tropical forests, his aim being to understand the psychology of travel under extreme conditions. A journey at sea becomes a logical extension of this goal. His choice of vehicle is the trawler Norlantean, and the reader is sent to steam across the open ocean feeling as seasick as the writer while the 70-year-old engines struggle with a force-12 storm. After a curious sequence of naming of parts, the ship is re-equipped with the collective personality of its occupants in this peculiarly indoor tale. This is not a conventional travel adventure, despite the physical extremes. All the action occurs in restricted spaces, not least the net that confines the fish, but also O'Hanlon's claustrophobic bunk, the cramped galley, the fish gutting room, and the icy hold.