Managed Annihilation

A provocative account of the annihilation of the legendary Newfoundland cod fishery, this book challenges the idea that we can understand, predict, and control nature without ultimately destroying it.

The sorry state of ocean life has led to a new kind of fish story – a lament not for the one that got away but for the countless others that didn't...Dean Bavington...observes that two hundred billion pounds worth of cod were taken from Canada's grand banks before 1992, when the cod simply ran out.

.A. Hutchings, Dalhousie University:
This book ... is valuable to those seeking a fresh, provocative approach to the northern cod fishery in particular and to natural resource management in general. Summing Up: Highly recommended.

Tracy Yandle, Emory University:

Bavington’s critique of existing management approaches is strong, and opens the door to a worthwhile discussion.

Elizabeth Kolbert:

The sorry state of ocean life has led to a new kind of fish story—a lament not for the one that got away but for the countless others that didn’t…Dean Bavington…observes that two hundred billion pounds’ worth of cod were taken from Canada’s Grand Banks before 1992, when the cod simply ran out.

from the Foreword by Graeme Wynn:

Managed Annihilation pleads for renunciation of “the holy grail of manageability,” the belief that all problems ... can be solved merely by exerting more effort, and obtaining greater efficiency, within the status quo order of advanced industrial societies. In the end, this book urges a new view of human-environment relations, one that would replace Western society’s long-standing drive to manage nature.

Bonnie McCay, Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University:
Unlike other efforts to make sense of the tragedy of the commons of the northern cod fishery and its halting recovery, Bavington calls into question the very premise of management and managerial ecology and offers a critical explanation that seeks to uncover alternatives obscured by this dominant way of relating to nature.