Sea change

Through the prism of Gloucester's past, Mark Kurlansky surveys new pressures on the city's fishing heritage

By Linda Greenlaw

June 8, 2008

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In "The Last Fish Tale," Mark Kurlansky strikes a poignant chord from the get-go. "Symbolic acts endure and traditions live on when the metaphor is exactly right. That is the principal explanation for why, on the last weekend of every June, dozens of Gloucester men take a boat out to an offshore platform and walk a forty-foot pole covered with a thick, gloppy cushion of grease, try to grab the flag at the end; and whether they succeed or fail, fall a dangerous two or three stories, depending on the tide, to the frigid June sea below. (Full article: 987 words)