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LEADING AMERICAN SCHOLAR TO LECTURE ON IMPERILED FISH DURING PROGRAM AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ON NOVEMBER 13
—H. Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, to discuss latest book, The Most Important Fish in North America
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H. Bruce Franklin, one of the country’s leading cultural scholars, will discuss his latest book, The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America, during a lecture on Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. in the Cheng Library Auditorium at William Paterson University in Wayne. Admission is free. The program is supported by a grant from the William Paterson University Alumni Association.
Franklin’s book focuses on menhaden, a small, oily, and bony fish that plays a major role in the marine ecosystem on the east coast of the United States. Virtually unknown to those outside commercial fishing or marine biology, menhaden have played a critical role in America’s national—and natural—history, but reckless overfishing now threatens their survival. Commercially harvested for animal feed, fertilizer, and oil used in everything from linoleum to health-food supplements, menhaden are also crucial to the diet of most food and game fish, as well as many marine mammals and birds. They also filter the waters of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, playing an essential dual role in marine ecology perhaps unmatched anywhere on the planet.
As menhaden’s numbers have plummeted, fish and birds dependent on menhaden have been decimated and toxic algae have begun to choke American bays and seas. Two bills currently before Congress, H.R. 3840 and H.R. 3841, propose to prohibit the further commercial fishing of menhaden for use as industrial commodities.
Franklin is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, where he has taught since 1975. He is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 300 articles on culture and history published in more than 100 major magazines and newspapers, academic journals, and reference works.
He has published continually on the history and literature of the Vietnam War since 1966, when he became widely known for his activist opposition to the war. Franklin’s work on the study of science fiction and its relation to culture and history has achieved international distinction; in 1961 he offered one of the first two university courses in the topic, and his book Future Perfect played a key role in establishing the importance and academic legitimacy of the subject.
For additional information, including directions, parking and weather updates, please call the Cheng Library at William Paterson University at 973-720-2113 or visit the Web site at www.wpunj.edu/library/menhaden.
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October 23, 2008
www.wpunj.edu
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