The North Pacific Ocean is the planet’s last great producer of fish, giving up about 25 million tonnes annually. Commercially, it has surpassed the Atlantic Ocean in importance, and Hong Kong has replaced Rotterdam as the world’s busiest port. Increasingly, the North Pacific is a region of key geopolitical significance. In this compelling journey around the North Pacific Ocean, Terry Glavin sheds light on the various mysteries of this last great sea. Until recently, people imagined that civilizations came late to this region of the globe. But maritime civilizations along the North Pacific stretch back to antiquity, when fishing settlements first arose at the mouths of rivers, brought there by the abundance of salmon; nowhere else on earth have people been so dependent on fish. Thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and powerfully argued, The Last Great Sea reveals one of the world’s most mysterious places in all of its richness and complexity.