Dead Fish and Fat Cats

In this humorous, forthright and intelligent book, successful fishboat captain Eric Wickham explores how an industry that had flourished for decades and was supposedly being well-managed by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, could suddenly founder.

Dead Fish and Fats Cats is a lively, no holds barred account of the experiences and entanglements of Eric Wickham, a commercial fisherman who fished for salmon, halibut and sablefish for over fifty years. It describes the unpredictable life of independent commercial fishermen and chastises the fishing bureaucrats for their mismanagement of the fishing industry. Dead Fish and Fat Cats provides a first hand look at the world of coastal fishing, describing everything from electronic fishing gadgets and fishing boats to fish farms. The book also answers the question: "Where have all the salmon gone?" and explains how we have moved from fish in abundance to scarcity and barrenness. The author proposes some innovative methods of dealing with some of the problems that plague the fishing industry.

Eric Wickham was born in the small BC coastal fishing village of Bamfield in 1942. For fifty years he was active in BC's fishing industry as a commercial fisherman and as an advocate for commercial fishermen in their struggle with big government. He is past president of the Pacific Blackcod Association, the Fishermen's Abalone Association and the Halibut Fishermen's Association, and is a past member of the Ministry of Fisheries Advisory Council. He is now retired and lives in Western Australia but returns to British Columbia regularly.