Whale Trails, Before and Now

Whale Trails, Before and Now

Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2015-01-20

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 0805096426

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A young girl helps her father, the captain of a whale boat, on a whale-watching trip and relates how her ancestors hunted whales in the same waters. Includes information on the history of whaling, whale-watching, and the conservation movement to ensure the safety of whales.


The Breath of a Whale

The Breath of a Whale

Author: Leigh Calvez

Publisher: Sasquatch Books

Published: 2019-02-26

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1632171872

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An ode to marine life and the natural world, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Owls This “intimate and spirited” essay collection “offers us the whale watch most of us can only dream of” as they reveal the elusive lives of whales in the Pacific Ocean—home to orcas, humpbacks, blue, gray, and sperm whales (Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus). Leigh Calvez has spent a dozen years researching, observing, and probing the lives of the giants of the deep. Here, she relates the stories of nature's most remarkable creatures, including the familial orcas in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia; the migratory humpbacks; the ancient, deep-diving blue whales, the largest animals on the planet. The lives of these whales are conveyed through the work of dedicated researchers who have spent decades tracking them along their secretive routes that extend for thousands of miles, gleaning their habits and sounds and distinguishing peculiarities. Calvez author invites the reader onto a small research catamaran maneuvering among 100-foot long blue whales off the coast of California; or to join the task of monitoring patterns of humpback whale movements at the ocean surface: tail throw, flipper slap, fluke up, or blow. To experience whales is breathtaking. To understand their lives deepens our connection with the natural world.


Saving the Gray Whale

Saving the Gray Whale

Author: Serge Dedina

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780816518463

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Once hunted by whalers and now the darling of ecotourists, the gray whale has become part of the culture, history, politics, and geography of Mexico's most isolated region. After the harvesting of gray whales was banned by international law in 1946, their populations rebounded; but while they are no longer hunted for their oil, these creatures are now chased up and down the lagoons of southern Baja California by whalewatchers. This book uses the biology and politics associated with gray whales in Mexican waters to present an unusual case study in conservation and politics. It provides an inside look at how gray whale conservation decisions are made in Mexico City and examines how those policies and programs are carried out in the calving grounds of San Ignacio Lagoon and Magdalena Bay, where catering to ecotourists is now an integral part of the local economy. More than a study of conservation politics, Dedina's book puts a human face on wildlife conservation. The author lived for two years with residents of Baja communities to understand their attitudes about wildlife conservation and Mexican politics, and he accompanied many in daily activities to show the extent to which the local economy depends on whalewatching. "It is ironic," observes Dedina, "that residents of some of the most isolated fishing villages in North America are helping to redefine our relationship with wild animals. Americans and Europeans brought the gray whale population to the brink of extinction. The inhabitants of San Ignacio Lagoon and Magdalena Bay are helping us to celebrate the whales' survival." By showing us how these animals have helped shape the lifeways of the people with whom they share the lagoons, Saving the Gray Whale demonstrates that gray whales represent both a destructive past and a future with hope.


Fathoms

Fathoms

Author: Rebecca Giggs

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2020-07-28

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 198212069X

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Winner of the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction * Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A “delving, haunted, and poetic debut” (The New York Times Book Review) about the awe-inspiring lives of whales, revealing what they can teach us about ourselves, our planet, and our relationship with other species. When writer Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beachfront in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales reflect the condition of our oceans. Fathoms: The World in the Whale is “a work of bright and careful genius” (Robert Moor, New York Times bestselling author of On Trails), one that blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore: How do whales experience ecological change? How has whale culture been both understood and changed by human technology? What can observing whales teach us about the complexity, splendor, and fragility of life on earth? In Fathoms, we learn about whales so rare they have never been named, whale songs that sweep across hemispheres in annual waves of popularity, and whales that have modified the chemical composition of our planet’s atmosphere. We travel to Japan to board the ships that hunt whales and delve into the deepest seas to discover how plastic pollution pervades our earth’s undersea environment. With the immediacy of Rachel Carson and the lush prose of Annie Dillard, Giggs gives us a “masterly” (The New Yorker) exploration of the natural world even as she addresses what it means to write about nature at a time of environmental crisis. With depth and clarity, she outlines the challenges we face as we attempt to understand the perspectives of other living beings, and our own place on an evolving planet. Evocative and inspiring, Fathoms “immediately earns its place in the pantheon of classics of the new golden age of environmental writing” (Literary Hub).


A 52-Hertz Whale

A 52-Hertz Whale

Author: Bill Sommer

Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab ®

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1467789690

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"It appears to be the only individual emitting a call at this frequency and hence, has been described as the world's loneliest whale."—Wikipedia So here's how it all starts: James, a high school freshman, is worried that the young humpback whale he tracks online has separated from its pod. So naturally he emails Darren, the twentysomething would-be filmmaker who volunteered in James's special education program back in middle school. Of course, Darren is useless on the subject of whales, but he's got nothing but time, given that the only girl he could ever love dumped him. And fetching lattes for his boss has him close to walking out on his movie dream and boomeranging right back to his childhood bedroom. So why not reply to a random email from Whale Boy? Predictably, this thread of emails leads to a lot of bizarre stuff, including a yeti suit, drug smuggling, widows, a major documentary filmmaking opportunity, first love, a graveyard, damaged echolocation, estranged siblings, restraining orders, choke holds, emergency dentistry...and then maybe ends with something like understanding. See, it turns out that the thing that binds people together most is their fear that nothing binds them together at all.


A Whale in Paris

A Whale in Paris

Author: Daniel Presley

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-05-22

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1534419179

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“Perfect for readers who love a touch of the fantastic and the impossible.” —Booklist A hopeful and heroic girl befriends a small, lost whale during World War II and together they embark on a journey to liberate France and find their families in this charming debut novel. Ever since the Germans became the unwelcome “guests” of Paris in the early days of World War II, Papa and Chantal have gone out in the evenings to fish in the Seine. Tonight Chantal is hoping for a salmon, but instead she spies something much more special: a whale! Though small (for a whale) and lost, he seems friendly. Chantal soon opens her heart to the loveable creature and names him Franklin, after the American president who must surely be sending troops to rescue her country. Yet Franklin is in danger: The Parisians are starving and would love to eat him, and the Nazis want to capture him as a gift to Hitler. In a desperate bid to liberate themselves and their city, Chantal and Franklin embark on a dangerous voyage. But can one small girl manage to return a whale to the ocean and reunite him with his parents? And will she ever see her own family again?


Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface

Author: John Hargrove

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2015-03-24

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1466878819

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*Now a New York Times Best Seller* Over the course of two decades, John Hargrove worked with 20 different whales on two continents and at two of SeaWorld's U.S. facilities. For Hargrove, becoming an orca trainer fulfilled a childhood dream. However, as his experience with the whales deepened, Hargrove came to doubt that their needs could ever be met in captivity. When two fellow trainers were killed by orcas in marine parks, Hargrove decided that SeaWorld's wildly popular programs were both detrimental to the whales and ultimately unsafe for trainers. After leaving SeaWorld, Hargrove became one of the stars of the controversial documentary Blackfish. The outcry over the treatment of SeaWorld's orca has now expanded beyond the outlines sketched by the award-winning documentary, with Hargrove contributing his expertise to an advocacy movement that is convincing both federal and state governments to act. In Beneath the Surface, Hargrove paints a compelling portrait of these highly intelligent and social creatures, including his favorite whales Takara and her mother Kasatka, two of the most dominant orcas in SeaWorld. And he includes vibrant descriptions of the lives of orcas in the wild, contrasting their freedom in the ocean with their lives in SeaWorld. Hargrove's journey is one that humanity has just begun to take-toward the realization that the relationship between the human and animal worlds must be radically rethought.


Surprise Encounters

Surprise Encounters

Author: Scott McVay

Publisher:

Published: 2015-09-22

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 9781941948026

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A champion of the arts, sciences, and conservation, particularly in his home state of New Jersey, Scott McVay, named "the Money-Man for Inspirations" by the New York Times, cites the stubborn challenges and great joys of a lifetime working in grantmaking and philanthropy.


A Tour on the Prairies

A Tour on the Prairies

Author: Washington Irving

Publisher: London : J. Murray

Published: 1835

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13:

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Account of an expedition in Oct. and Nov. 1832 through a part of the unorganized Indian country now the state of Oklahoma.


The Whale Warriors

The Whale Warriors

Author: Peter Heller

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-09-18

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1416546138

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Now with a new afterword by the author, the tenth-anniversary edition of Peter Heller’s “swashbuckling adventure” (Publishers Weekly) takes us on a hair-raising journey aboard a whale saving pirate ship with a vigilante crew whose mission is to stop illegal Japanese whaling in the stormy seas of Antarctica. The Whale Warriors is an adventure story set in the far reaches of the globe. For two months in 2005, journalist Peter Heller was aboard the Farley Mowat as it stalked its prey—a Japanese whaling fleet—through the storms and ice of Antarctica. The little ship is black, flies under a jolly roger, and carries members of the Sea Shepherd Society, a radical environmental group who are willing to die to stop illegal whale hunting. Heller recreates a nail-biting showdown when Captain Watson and his crew attempt to deliberately ram an enormous Japanese whaling ship, trying to tear open its hull with a steel blade called a “Can Opener.” In thirty-five-foot seas, a deadly game of Antarctic chicken begins. But while the ships are far from rescue, the world is watching. Japan threatens to send down defense aircraft and warships, Australia appeals for calm, New Zealand dispatches military surveillance aircraft, the US Office of Naval Intelligence issues a piracy warning, and international media begin to track the developing whale war. As Heller describes the slow, rusting, old Norwegian trawler Farley Mowat and the fast, new six ship whaling fleet of the Japanese, we also learn about the crisis of our oceans, which are on the verge of total ecosystem collapse. The exploitation of endangered whales is emblematic of an over-exploitation of the seas that is now entering its desperate denouement with our own survival in the balance. “A swift kick to any remaining complacency about the plight of our oceans” (National Geographic Adventure), The Whale Warriors is “two parts high seas swashbuckle and one part inconvenient truth” (Surfer).