They used to sing 'Where have all the flowers gone?' Now Eric Wickham is singing 'Where have all the salmon gone?' He's from Bamfield. A fishboat captain. His memoir is an exposé of what has gone wrong with our dysfunctional coastal fishing industry. David Suzuki wrote the foreword. Dead Fish and Fat Cats (Granville Island $19.95) has lots of funny bits. That way you can keep going through the stuff about fish farm and DFO guys. DFO always sounds like UFO to me. "For decades, I struggled against the DFO in politically correct ways,"; he says, "through committees and fishermen's groups... Every major fishery the DFO ever managed has collapsed."; Wickham lives in Australia now but he's partners with a younger guy, Bobby Fraumeni, who puts up with the 18-hour days. 1-894694-18-X (2003)

[Spring 2003 BCBW]