To Sea & Back

 

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.

Richard Shelton is research director of the Atlantic Salmon Trust, former head of a freshwater fisheries laboratory, and the author of The Longshoreman: A Life at the Water’s Edge, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.