The Spirit of the Whale: Legend, History, Conservation

Patrick Colgan is Director of Research and Natural Lands at the Royal
Botanical Gardens.

The Spirit of the Whale is a “collection of narratives and images.”
The introduction sets the stage for this group of huge, hunted,
conserved, and communicative sea mammals in four chapters.
“Discovering Whales” provides an overview of the diversity and
natural history of species. “Of Whales and Gods” presents a
smorgasbord of whale-focused tales from many lands and times. “Of
Whales and Men” relates the long history of whaling, its economics and
ethics, and its eventual end. It is strange that this chronicle of
butchery is the longest chapter in the book.

Celebrating Whales rejoices in whale watching, accounts from
naturalists, conservation efforts (among which it is good to see the
work of Newfoundland’s John Lien reported), and laudably addresses the
issue of whales in aquaria. The text relies heavily on excerpts
dramatically augmented by generally large-format color illustrations,
including gems such as that of an Arctic bone house (c. 1400). Some
readers may remain hungry for more on such fascinating topics as
communication. Surprisingly, there is no discussion of the controversial
hunting of a gray whale in May 1999 by the Makah tribe of Washington.