Tuna Wars: Powers Around the Fish We Love to Conserve

What is the story behind a simple tuna can? New book explores the history of tuna fishing, from the ancient times till the modern sustainable food-industry.

Heidelberg | New York, 30 April 2020

This book showcases tuna, one of the most consumed fish worldwide, as an important staple food to survive on in times of crisis, and how tuna was always at the heart of struggles for power and great wealth. While recently, the fights are focused around sustainable fisheries that can maintain this healthy source of protein for future generations, the money at stake is in the hundreds of millions. 

Tuna Wars tells the story of the battles around tuna, going back thousands of years, in ancient times when tuna was the first fish in human history to be captured, processed, and sold on an industrial scale. It showcases how fishing tuna is a global industry and yet still a cultural, industrial, and local heritage of many places. Moreover, it effectively presents comprehensive information on the fish, so many love to eat, prepare, and cook. And explores its deep historical roots to tell the largely unknown background of the social and political complexity around tuna; how tuna is part of the conversation on illegal fisheries as well as aims to shape sustainable fisheries, but in fact, has been part of civilization from its earliest origins.  

"Throughout our history with tuna, the sound of battle was never far away. However, deeply and radically, our history has been determined by tuna, the fish only became truly famous for the battles on sustainability where we are right now in the middle of", explains Steven Adolf. "And this time, we cannot permit ourselves to lose the fight." 

Readers interested in sustainability and the fishing industry, maritime biology, and environmental movements will appreciate the journey that Tuna Wars invites its readers on.

About the author

Steven Adolf is a researcher and advisor, writer, and journalist based in the Netherlands. He worked as an editor and correspondent in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco for the Dutch daily papers Het Financieele Dagblad, De Volkskrant, and NRC Handelsblad, the Dutch weekly magazine Elsevier, and the Belgian newspapers De Morgen and The Standard. He is also the author of bestselling country portraits of Spain and Morocco and a book on Spanish immigration in the Netherlands.

Adolf, Steven
Tuna Wars: Powers Around The Fish We Love to Conserve
2019, 400p. 67b/w illustrations, 32 illustrations in colour
Hardcover € 41,41 | £32.99 | $49.99 
ISBN   978-3-030-20640-6
eISBN 978-3-030-20641-3