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The section on marine fishes, introduced by B.Howell, is far too brief. There is a veritable tidalwave of effort going into stocking and enhancementof marine fishes, but Howell’s chapter and indeed theothers in this section barely scratch the surface.

Section IV on genetics is a little stronger, with amore extensive introductory chapter by G.R. Carvalhoand T.F. Cross, and several chapters with area-specificdetails. Finally, section V, on management concerns,has a chapter each on codes of practice, evaluation,and economics, and two chapters on specific casestudies.

This is a valuable compilation and I am sure it willbe frequently used to find both principles and caseexamples in the history of fish stocking and introduc-tion. However, this book has two major weaknesses.First is the unbalanced geographic coverage: of the36 papers, 29 deal with experience in Europe, threeconcern African lakes, two are from the Americas andtwo from Asia. Yet many of the impacts of stockingand introduction are very different depending uponthe geographic isolation of the target habitats and thehistory of the region with respect to previous intro-duction. The impact of introductions in North andSouth America, most of Africa, almost all of Asia,Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii are all lacking.The vast experience in North America with stocking ofPacific salmon is missing. Perhaps the volume shouldhave been entitledStocking and Introduction of Fish inEurope with a few Other Examples!

The second chief weakness is the lack of anyconcluding chapter. Someone should have read all ofthe chapters and come to some conclusions. Let mejust add the one that I particularly wish had beenpresent. When reviewing the history of fish stockingand introduction around the world, it is clear thatthere have frequently been catastrophic or at leastseriously damaging results, and that rarely – if ever– has either stocking or introduction provided theanticipated benefits without large unanticipated nega-tive consequences. Thus while the codes of practiceand guidelines for evaluation of new projects areuseful, these should be tempered by the strong expec-tation that proposed introduction and stocking will notonly fail to achieve their objectives but also hold thestrong possibility of disaster. Thus anyone evaluatinga proposal for a stocking or introduction should beginwith a very strong prior belief that it won’t work andwill be deleterious.

Ray HilbornSeattle, Washington

Watershed Restoration: Principles and Practices.Edited by J. E. Williams, C. A. Wood and M. P.Dombeck. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda,MD, 1997. ISBN 1-888569-04-2 (hard cover, $50.00US), 1-888569-05-0 (p/b, $40.00 US). Acid-freepaper, pp. xxi + 561, 30 tables, 109 figures (35 incolour). Extensive list of references; glossary, specieslist, index. Available from: AFS Publication Fulfill-ment, PO Box 1020, Sewickley, PA 15143, USA.

This is a volume of 28 chapters addressing watershed-scale (‘catchment’ in UK English) restoration in theUSA. The editors’ objective is to provide the neces-sary background for promoting successful restorationthrough a combination of case studies (Part 4, chap-ters 18–24) which support essays on the ethical, socialand scientific principles (Part 1, chapters 2–8) and keypractices (which are essentially also case studies) (Part3, chapters 12–17). It concludes with four snthesischapters looking into the future (Part 5, chapters 25–28). This message of holistic watershed restoration isaimed at a wide readership of professional and laypersons, scientists and non-scientists, land and watermanagers.

Restoration of rivers has had a long history inthe USA during the 20th century, probably becausetheir degradation following the expansion of Euro-pean settlement last century was so rapid. Over thepast few decades, however, restoration practitionershave realised that river restoration is of limited valueif the watershed remains degraded, as the failure ofmany river schemes has demonstrated. Addressingthe restoration of whole watershedes is a Herculeantask, which can be achieved only through the ‘bottom-up’ approaches of local education, partnerships, andvoluntary action rather than the ‘top-down’ initia-tives of governmental decrees, agencies and inflexiblepolicies. In demonstrating that ‘bottom-up’ initiativescan be successful, this book achieves its primaryaim.

River restoration is a science, which can beachieved by fisheries and aquatic ecologists collabo-rating with engineers and geomorphologists. Water-shed restoration is an art. The case studies in thisbook, each adding to its story rather than overlapping,show how science provides the essential supportingrole, but not the leading role, in generating the neces-sary momentum among a watershed’s human inhab-itants and supporters for its holistic restoration tosucceed. The ‘art’ is in appropriate application ofthe science. Although starting from a ‘fish-centric’

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view of restoration and with an author list composedpredominantly of fisheries and aquatic scientists, thebook successfully conveys the ‘watershed-centric’thinking necessary to achieve a restoration ethic.Several chapters draw on the rich American heritage ofenvironmental philosophers, from Native Americansthrough Emerson and Thoreau to Leopold and Carson.

This restoration ethic, on such a scale as a water-shed, thus brings into play wider disciplines suchas environmental ethics, social history and socialecology, human psychology and human politics.Several chapters demonstrate, not only the integra-tion of these disciplines, but the extent to which theirapplication to watershed restoration must be followedby their application to the whole spectrum of humansociety’s relationships with the biosphere if we areever to achieve true sustainability. This is perhaps themost important value of the book.

The USA undoubtedly is showing the lead toEurope in watershed conservation (although Australia,too, has commendable ‘bottom-up’ approaches whichare assisted, rather than led, by federal and state agen-cies) and the book is a valuable synthesis of the huge

‘grey literature’ of US agencies often difficult or timeconsuming to obtain in Europe (around 250 of thereference citations – commendably, many contain theaddress should the reader wish to acquire them). It isa pity, however, that the book is so parochially Amer-ican, with units (feet, acres, pounds) that continentalEuropeans will find mystifying and even Britons willstruggle with.Watershed Restoration: Principles andPractices deserves the widest possible readership.Although not a book for undergraduate purchase, itis definitely a book for the shelves of libraries and ofindividual aquatic scientists of all disciplines, who willfind within its pages much to inspire their thinking,teaching, research and lifestyle philosophies. It isclearly written throughout, with good maps and figures(but in keeping with its target readership, relativelyfew data), clear illustrations (many in colour), veryfew typographical errors and adequate binding.

David HarperDepartment of BiologyUniversity of Leicester

Leicester, UK