For a country surrounded by water it is no surprise that fishing is a popular pastime for many of us.

Many can recall going "down the rocks" as youngsters with a line, 'sinkers' and bait to catch fish.

Somerset born Graham Faiella is no exception. He grew up near Cambridge Beaches and spent many hours along the shoreline around that part of Somerset.

The memories have remained with him, as has the passion, so it seemed the most natural thing to do when his younger brother Peter suggested he write a book on fishing in Bermuda.

The book tells the story of how fishing has evolved on the Island since those early years, how people fish in Bermuda, where they fish, what they catch and their responsibilities towards the fishing environment.

The book is a five-year effort involving a great deal of research by Mr. Faiella, who now lives in Wimbledon, England but who still returns to Bermuda at least once a year. He has been a professional editor and writer since 1979, lately writing on subjects relating to the sea and Bermuda.

"The book was a long term effort, an effort of collecting information and doing research," said Mr. Faiella.

"But since I have always had a love of fishing and an interest in fishing around Bermuda - anywhere really but especially Bermuda - it was no effort at all. l loved doing it. To me it was a labour of love, really."

He admits the book would not have been possible without the assistance of many people, including commercial fishermen Billy McCallum, Andrew Card, Eugene Barnes and Allen DeSilva, charter fishermen Keith Winter and Milton Pitman and Fisheries staff. He acknowledges them and many others in the book.

"Billy McCallum was a great help, he knows a lot about fishing and is a respected fisherman," said Mr. Faiella.

"He led me in a lot of different directions and gave me a lot of insight that I wouldn't have otherwise had. He played a very significant role from a commercial (fishing) aspect."

Mr. Faiella put the idea of a book in motion in mid-1998 when he made contact with personnel at the Fisheries Department at Coney Island. For the first couple of years he estimates he came back to Bermuda four or five times a year.

"There was no substitute for being there and talking to people," he said.

"Some of the guys I knew anyway, like Andrew Card down at Somerset Bridge. I raised different issues with different people and gradually put it all together. Personal letters belonging to Louis Mowbray were very instrumental in the early days of recreational fishing."

Mr. Faiella has two brothers, John and Peter, living in Bermuda, as well as other relatives.

"The main idea (for the book) came from my younger brother Peter but it then became a much bigger thing as I got into the subject," he revealed.

"He was really interested in a book on where to go fishing for amateur fishermen, but it steamrolled from there. I wanted to do it thoroughly, to make a comprehensive documentation of all aspects of fishing in Bermuda, from a description of the marine environment to the different types of fishing, recreational and commercial fishing. And to give it some depth with the history of all of these things as well."

The book, which will soon be available in local bookstores, is an excellent reference for all levels of fishermen. It includes chapters on fisheries management, the marine environment and fishing environment as well as fishing grounds around Bermuda including, Challenger and Argus Banks. It also includes a chapter on some of Bermuda's favourite fish recipes.

"Whenever I come to Bermuda I dust off my fishing rod and take it out of my brother's garage," Mr. Faiella revealed.

"Bermuda is very lucky in a way, there are so many kinds of salt water fishing off the shore, taking a small boat to a reef offshore, and there are so many species of fish.

"What is an issue, and probably will become more of an issue in the future, is how people manage the marine resources around Bermuda. It's a very fragile resource.

"It is only in the last generation or two that it has become a multi-use resource and that's why it is more vulnerable."

Nobody would deny that fish are not as abundant today as they were years ago. Over-fishing is only one part of it," Mr. Faiella says of the decline of the fish stock.

"It's only in the past 40 years that big cruise ships have come in three or four times a week, thousands of boats are out in the summer months and all of that has an impact on the marine environment."

Mr. Faiella, who was educated at Warwick Academy, has lived in the UK since 1974. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1978 and has worked in London as a writer and editor since 1979.

His father was the manager of Cambridge Beaches from the late 1940s to about 1960 and then owned Waterlot Inn until the early 1970s.

"Basically I'm from Somerset," said Mr. Faiella, one of four children.

"Even though I'm three-and-a-half thousand miles away, it is like that saying that you can take the Bermudian out of Bermuda but you can never take Bermuda out of the Bermudian."

The book was published by Macmillan Caribbean in Oxford and will also be sold internationally.

"My intention was to write a book that was accessible to everyone, and to have a profound interest in the subject," he said.

"McMillan Caribbean liked the idea and tested the ground to see if it would be a profitable book as well as an interesting book. When they did, we had a contract.

"People say 'who do you think is going to read this', but it is for everybody, not just fisherman. If you are interested in Bermuda then this is one part of the Bermuda heritage worth reading about. This book describes the conditions under which people fish and have fished during the whole of Bermuda's history.

I want people to be provoked. The book is meant to be provocative."