In the vein of Steinbeck's Cannery Row, this novel takes the reader on a wild ride to a community turned upside-down by the social changes of the 1970s. Seen through the eyes of a young man newly fled from his straight-laced Dutch upbringing, the fishing village of Bamfield on Vancouver Island's pristine west coast is the unlikely meeting place of an uneasy mix of fishermen, the Nuu-chah-nulth whaling clan, hippies, drug peddlers, and the scientists and students of the Bamfield Marine Station. Gaz, a marine biologist, begins to live the laidback life of Lotusland in the 70s, becoming a beachcomber and small-time marijuana grower with his two friends, rich kid Blay and Nuu-chah-nulth aristocrat Ben. And not long after, he falls in love with Heidi, a student at the Marine Station. But things go terribly wrong: greedy Blay brings big-city interests into their casual pot business, Ben is murdered, Heidi's affections begin to wane and the local police are on to them.
Louis Druehl has been a professor of marine botany at Simon Fraser University for thirty years. He has also taught field-oriented seaweed courses at the Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories, the Bamfield Marine Station and the University of Alaska. His research focuses on all aspects of kelp, including its evolution, ecology and physiology. He is the president of Canadian Kelp Resources Ltd., a company that produces sea vegetables (Barkley Sound Kelp) and operates a kelp farm.
"[It is] a town so tight-knit [so] full of hidden intrigues and eccentrics [that] with its extraordinary history, [it] seems the perfect subject for a novel. Louis recognized this potential and felt compelled to explore Bamfields cauldron of characters in Cedar, Salmon & Weed." -- Simon Winchester, New York Times