Last Whale


Book Description

At the end of the 1970s, one young reporter bears witness to the final days of Australia’s whaling industry. Thirty years after the last whale was captured and slaughtered in Australia, this incisive account tells the very human story of the characters and events that brought whaling to an end. This fair and balanced account portrays the raw adventure of going to sea, the perils of being a whaler, and the commitment that leads activists to throw themselves into the path of an explosive harpoon. Accompanied by a wonderful photographic record of the time, this is the action-packed history of a town reliant on whaling dollars pitted against a determined band of protesters.




The Last Whalers


Book Description

At a time when global change has eradicated thousands of unique cultures, The Last Whalers tells the inside story of the Lamalerans, an ancient tribe of 1,500 hunter-gatherers who live on a remote Indonesian volcanic island. They have survived for centuries by taking whales with bamboo harpoons, but now are being pushed toward collapse by the encroachment of the modern world. Journalist Doug Bock Clark, who lived with the Lamalerans across three years, weaves together their stories. Clark details how the fragile dreams of one of the world's dwindling indigenous peoples are colliding with the upheavals of our rapidly transforming world, and delivers a group of unforgettable families.




The Last Whales


Book Description

A mature male blue whale, weakened by parasites and mercury poisoning, searches for his mate and surviving calf, while remembering the events of his life




Ahab's Rolling Sea


Book Description

Although Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is beloved as one of the most profound and enduring works of American fiction, we rarely consider it a work of nature writing—or even a novel of the sea. Yet Pulitzer Prize–winning author Annie Dillard avers Moby-Dick is the “best book ever written about nature,” and nearly the entirety of the story is set on the waves, with scarcely a whiff of land. In fact, Ishmael’s sea yarn is in conversation with the nature writing of Emerson and Thoreau, and Melville himself did much more than live for a year in a cabin beside a pond. He set sail: to the far remote Pacific Ocean, spending more than three years at sea before writing his masterpiece in 1851. A revelation for Moby-Dick devotees and neophytes alike, Ahab’s Rolling Sea is a chronological journey through the natural history of Melville’s novel. From white whales to whale intelligence, giant squids, barnacles, albatross, and sharks, Richard J. King examines what Melville knew from his own experiences and the sources available to a reader in the mid-1800s, exploring how and why Melville might have twisted what was known to serve his fiction. King then climbs to the crow’s nest, setting Melville in the context of the American perception of the ocean in 1851—at the very start of the Industrial Revolution and just before the publication of On the Origin of Species. King compares Ahab’s and Ishmael’s worldviews to how we see the ocean today: an expanse still immortal and sublime, but also in crisis. And although the concept of stewardship of the sea would have been entirely foreign, if not absurd, to Melville, King argues that Melville’s narrator Ishmael reveals his own tendencies toward what we would now call environmentalism. Featuring a coffer of illustrations and an array of interviews with contemporary scientists, fishers, and whale watch operators, Ahab’s Rolling Sea offers new insight not only into a cherished masterwork and its author but also into our evolving relationship with the briny deep—from whale hunters to climate refugees.




The Last Whale


Book Description

There are 1.3 million great whales left in the Earth's oceans today. Climate activist Abi and her AI computer Moonlight are on a mission to protect the planet. When they uncover whale song recordings made by Abi's great-grandfather, a whale hunter, Moonlight discovers a pattern... ...the songs are a map to a future that could rescue the whales and rescue the world. 'A hard-hitting, beautifully written call to arms' Guardian * Daily Mail Best Book of 2022 * * Big Issue Kids' Best Book of 2022 *




A Possibility of Whales


Book Description

The story of a girl who—thanks to her friends, her famous dad, and a chance encounter with a whale—learns the true meaning of family. Twelve-year-old Natalia Rose Baleine Gallagher loves possibilities: the possibility that she’ll see whales on the beach near her new home, that the boy she just met will be her new best friend, that the photographers chasing her actor father won’t force Nat and her dad to move again. Most of all, Nat dreams of the possibility that her faraway mother misses and loves Nat—and is waiting for Nat to find her. The thing is, Nat doesn’t even know who her mother is. She left Nat as a baby, and Nat’s dad refuses to talk about it. Nat knows she shouldn’t need a mom, but she still feels like something is missing. In this heartfelt story about family, friendship, and growing up, Nat’s questions lead her on a journey of self-discovery that will change her life forever.




A Killer Whale's World


Book Description

A close up look at these awe-inspiring black and white sea mammals.




The Lost Whale


Book Description

A gorgeously written standalone from the acclaimed author of The Last Bear, Hannah Gold’s second novel is a touching story about adventure, recovery, and love—perfect for fans of Pax and A Wolf Called Wander. When Rio is sent to live with a grandmother he barely knows in California, he feels completely alone. Then he makes a new friend on the foggy beach—a girl named Marina, who teaches him about the massive grey whales that migrate nearby. As Rio grows to love the whales, he discovers that his mother loved them, too. He’s suddenly sure that if he can somehow find a way to connect her with these gentle giants – and especially with a particular whale named White Beak – she will get better and come to join him in California. But White Beak is missing—and Rio must embark on a desperate journey across the dangerous ocean to find her. An excellent choice for readers in grades 3 to 7, this fierce celebration of friendship includes information about the struggles facing real gray whales from climate change, pollution, and over-fishing.




Among Whales


Book Description

Taking readers on a journey across the spectrum of life to discover the answers to the larger questions of life on Earth, an eminent field biologist addresses a wide range of subjects--from the purpose of the brain to the possibilities of peaceful cohabitation among the world's creatures. 9 charts.




The Walking Whales


Book Description

Hans Thewissen, a leading researcher in the field of whale paleontology and anatomy, gives a sweeping first-person account of the discoveries that brought to light the early fossil record of whales. As evidenced in the record, whales evolved from herbivorous forest-dwelling ancestors that resembled tiny deer to carnivorous monsters stalking lakes and rivers and to serpentlike denizens of the coast. Thewissen reports on his discoveries in the wilds of India and Pakistan, weaving a narrative that reveals the day-to-day adventures of fossil collection, enriching it with local flavors from South Asian culture and society. The reader senses the excitement of the digs as well as the rigors faced by scientific researchers, for whom each new insight gives rise to even more questions, and for whom at times the logistics of just staying alive may trump all science. In his search for an understanding of how modern whales live their lives, Thewissen also journeys to Japan and Alaska to study whales and wild dolphins. He finds answers to his questions about fossils by studying the anatomy of otters and porpoises and examining whale embryos under the microscope. In the book's final chapter, Thewissen argues for approaching whale evolution with the most powerful tools we have and for combining all the fields of science in pursuit of knowledge.




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