2021 · 426 pp
The New Fish
Simen Sætre / Kjetil Stensvik Østli
In the early 1970s, a group of scientists researched how to make more food for the population of the world. They looked to the sea.They sampled genes from salmon in 41 Norwegian and Swedish rivers, and designed a new salmon that was fatter, more docile, and faster growing.This was the beginning of a new industry - salmon farming.
The industry spread from coastal Norway to all corners of the Globe. Jobs were created, business boomed and salmon farmers became extremely rich. A new type of food, the salmon sushi, spread around the globe.
But as soon as this new fish was released in nature, unexpected things started to happen. Wild salmon stocks disappeared, diseases spread in salmon farms, salmon louse swarmed and the new industry became highly contested.
In a prize-winning five-year investigation, authors Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli has taken a closer look at the global salmon industry. For the first time, the global history of salmon farming is told. The result combines nature writing from Norwegian fjords, the coast of Canada, Icelandic landscapes and the far south of Chile with classical muckraking and character-driven literary non-fiction.
The authors start out with a question: What happens when you place a new animal in the sea? This book gives you the answer.
Most people might not download an audiobook about the Norwegian farmed salmon industry for fear that it would be too niche to be of interest, or not quite broad enough to be relevant. They would be mistaken. (…) an exceptionally powerful investigation into the farmed salmon industry, sure, but it’s also about much more than that: mankind’s hubris, the limits of technology, the boundlessness of greed, stomach-churning accounts of animal cruelty and an overwhelming feeling that you can’t eat salmon, or really trust any food, or trust anyone (…)THE NEW YORK TIMES – AUDIOBOOK OF THE WEEK
... 365-page exposé in the vein of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring ...NEW YORK TIMES
... an extraordinary piece of environmental journalism.GRAY'S SPORTING JOURNAL
Lies and torture – This book about salmon farming is exceptional investigative journalism.Five stars out of sixDAGBLADETThe story about «The New Fish» is necessary, readable and will provoke far into the corridors of Power.Five stars out of sixSTAVANGER AFTENBLAD (major Norwegian regional newspaper)
Journalists Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli have written a compelling and thought-provoking book, deserving of many readers. The book’s central claim is that the industrial salmon farming of today not only ruins life in the fjords, but it also contributes to exploit limited resources which could have been put to different and better uses elsewhere. AFTENPOSTEN (Leading Norwegian daily newspaper)
Close to 52 million salmon die in the fish cages every year. The new fish cannot complain, it has no voice, but it never shuts his eye. Some of what they see is conveyed by Sætre and Østli in this moving and upsetting book. Well done.MORGENBLADET (Norway’s leading weekly intellectual/cultural newspaper)This is top-class journalism. They ask open questions without moralizing, with an underlying critical gaze.VÅRT LAND (daily Norwegian newspaper)
The New Fish is the story about how the Norwegian governing powers, administration research and politicians forgot the division of roles and in a disastrous way was involved in promoting the interests of the salmon farming industry. Almost at any cost, and with no consideration for other interests, such as environment, eco systems or animal welfare – and maybe even the health of people.DAG OG TID (weekly Norwegian intellectual and cultural newspaper)
This modern Icarus tale about Man’s attempt to tame the salmon is probably the most important political debate book published this year.KLASSEKAMPEN (major Norwegian daily newspaper with tone-setting book-section)
The text is captivating and exciting, without compromising the book’s seriousness.Jakt & fiske, Ole Kirkemo
The authors' skills of dissemination are world-class.Biologen(quarterly Norwegian biology review)
The New fish is a much-needed review of the billion-dollar industry that is Norwegian salmon farming. But more than that it is also an equally exciting and well-written story about man´s cynical and at times mindless march towards domination over nature. This is a book that risks seriously clouding you joy the next time you find crazy cheap salmon in the deep freezer in your store.Patrik Svensson – author of international bestseller The Book of Eels
You will choke on your sushi, or at least it will lose its taste, if you are one of us who care about ecology, animal welfare and democracy. Exemplary researched and masterly written. This book is this year’s most important non-fiction publication.Morten Strøksnes – author of international bestseller Shark Drunk
The New Fish is an in-depth and brave expose of the dark secrets of the salmon farming industry. I have great respect for Kjetil S. Østli and Simen Sætre. They demonstrate the best of investigative writing despite aggressive reputation of this industry.Alexandra Morton – author of Listening to Whales and Not on My Watch – and probably the world’s biggest salmon activist
Industrial salmon farming will, in time, come to be seen as the most destructive form of factory farming yet invented, a horrific endpoint of the twentieth century’s obsession with profit no matter the cost. Around the world, the salmon industry’s methods, technology, political influence and dubious product are coming under increasing question and attack. This important book tells the truth hidden beneath the dark waters: it explains what happened, how it happened, and why it must be stopped.Richard Flanagan –author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North and winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014
Industrial salmon farming is an ecological travesty and a moral tragedy, and this book is a powerful and timely expose of an industry driven by profit and not much else. It should be required reading for anyone who includes salmon on their menu. Reading it reminded me, time and again, that I made the right decision 35 years ago when I stopped eating fish.Jonathan Balcombe - author of Super Fly, and the international bestseller What a Fish KnowsØstli and Sætre provide a catchy depiction of the process which made salmon farming a Norwegian super business… They shed light to the problems that are linked to salmon... The result is a readable book… Amidst all the serious reflection there are many lighter, interesting anecdotes…Tuomas Niskakangas, Helsingin Sanomat - Finland
The New Fish is full of weighty matters… The colour chart is just a minor detail in Kjetil Østli’s and Simen Sætre’s new book. Still it sums up the whole story of salmon farming where the illusion of naturalness requires constantly bigger portions of artificiality… You lose your appetite for lesser reasons… The content of The New Fish makes it a startling book… In the end this is not a story about fish, it’s a story about humans.Image - one of the most valued magazines in Finland with focus on high-quality feature journalism
A masterpiece of investigative journalism examines the decay of salmon business… The expedition of the Norwegian journalist duo offers more and more outrageous examples of the problems of the rapidly growing industry… Kjetil Østli and Simen Sætre have written an exceptionally effective non-fiction book… They describe the special field in an enviably accessible way. The readable but disturbing story makes you turn the page holding your breath. A same kind of book should be written about all fields of animal production… Five stars.Kulttuuritoimitus - a Finnish online media focused on culture journalism
