To Sea & Back

Book excerpt: STRONGCombining exquisite natural history with beguiling autobiographical and historical narrative, a portrait of a fish whose story is closely intertwined with our own The Atlantic salmon is an extraordinary and mysterious fish. Here, Richard Shelton combines memoir and deep scientific knowledge to reveal, from the salmon's point of view, both the riverine and marine worlds in which it lives. He explores this iconic fish's journey to reach its feeding grounds in the northern oceans before making the return over thousands of miles to the brooks of its birth to reproduce. Along the way, Shelton describes the feats of exploration that gave us our first real understanding of the oceans, and shows how this iconic fish is a vital indicator of the health of our rivers and oceans. Above all, this is the story of Richard Shelton's lifelong passion for the sea and his attempt to solve the perennial enigmas of the salmon's secret life.