Best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues
Award Year: 1995
Award Name: The Whitman Bassow Award 1995
Recipient: Michael Parfit
Affiliation: National Geographic Magazine
Honored Work: “Diminishing Returns — Exploiting the Ocean’s Bounty”
This article includes reporting from Alaska, Morocco, Senegal, the Philippines, the west coast of Spain, the seas off Patagonia, the northwest Atlantic near Iceland, and the waters of Newfoundland and Cape Cod. Parfit netted quotes from businesspeople, boat crews, and subsistence fishermen, as well as from diplomats and scientists. What Parfit establishes is that the world’s fisheries are in terrible shape as a result of overfishing and the politics of territoriality. He writes: “The unthinkable has come to pass: the wealth of oceans, once deemed inexhaustible, has proven finite.” The piece is magnificently illustrated with photos, maps, and drawings.
Citation for Excellence:
Eugene Linden
TIME
“The Rape of Siberia”