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More than a century ago, the whaler Charles Melville Scammon chased pods of gray whales across the Pacific, slaughtering them by the hundreds and driving them nearly to the point of extinction. Dick Russell, a noted conservationist and journalist, follows Scammon's wake, bringing news both good and bad about the condition of the gray whale today.
Chronicling a journey along Pacific gray whale routes from Sakhalin Island to the southern tip of Baja California, Russell braces his narrative with the long, politically charged tale of a Japanese corporation's efforts to build a salt-extraction plant on a Mexican lagoon that has served for ages as an important gray whale breeding ground. Writing knowingly of gray whale natural history, and of the effects such an alteration of the environment would have on the species, Russell then turns to other controversial threats to the gray, such as the Washington Makah tribe's decision in the late 1990s to revive a lost tradition of whale-hunting, and the Japanese government's refusal to honor international treaties protecting the gray and other whale species from widespread depredation.
The good news, as Russell writes, is that the Mexican salt plant was eventually stopped. The bad news is that the gray whale is still everywhere under siege. Though it does not displace recent books such as Serge Dedina's Saving the Gray Whale and Robert Sullivan's A Whale Hunt, Russell's is by far the most complete popular account of the gray whale across its wide range, and it makes useful reading for anyone seeking to learn more about this key marine species. --Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
Thrilling whale watchers, stumping scientists and reminding environmentalists of the fragility of our ecological balance, the mysterious, massive gray whale takes an epic and emotional place in our hearts and minds. Here Russell (The Man Who Knew Too Much), an environmental journalist best known for sparking a movement to save the Atlantic striped bass, makes a passionate argument for the protection of California grays, dubbed "whales of passage" by the 19th-century whaler and naturalist Charles Melville Scammon. Juxtaposing his tale of the history and migration of the grays with Scammon's writings about them, Russell follows the whales' yearly 5000-mile swim from the warm lagoons in Baja where they give birth and exhibit "friendly" behavior toward humans up the Pacific coast of North America to the shallow and comparably chilly feeding grounds of Chirikof Basin in the Bering Sea. Along the way, he tells the harrowing tale of the gray's near extinction due to commercial whaling and the many real threats to the species from predators and human commercial development, while also gleefully detailing the work of marine biologists and environmentalists. For journalistic balance, Russell grudgingly gives some space to those he finds threatening to the grays; for example, he tepidly interviews members of the Makah tribe who hunted and killed a gray in 1999 and those involved in Mitsubishi's salt farming interests. However, their perspectives are quickly swallowed up by his disdain for their conflicts of interest and his articulate expression of the imperative to protect the gray whale specifically and marine life in general. (Aug.) Forecast: Our fascinating friends of the deep have many fans. If the popularity of Robert Sullivan's more personal account of the Makahs' assertion of their whaling rights in last year's A Whale Hunt is any indication, this will find an eager readership, though some may be daunted by its massive proportions. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This engaging account of the remarkable migration pattern of the gray whale from its breeding area in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, to feeding grounds 5000 miles away in the Bering Sea will elicit in the reader a deep respect and empathy for these mammals. Russell, an environmental journalist and activist, draws on scientific, historical, and geographical sources as he follows the whales' migration path by land, sea, and air along the Pacific coast. Along the way he describes meetings with individuals who are involved in conservation and environmental efforts, interspersing his encounters with fishermen and scientists with excerpts from the writings of Charles Melville Scammon, a 19th-century whaling captain and naturalist who was the first to describe the whale migration in detail. Serge Dedina's Saving the Gray Whale: People, Politics, and Conservation in Baja California (LJ 2/15/00) covers the Baja California phase in the whales' lives, and a PBS video, Gray Whales with Christopher Reeve (1995), is also pertinent to the subject. Russell's work covers communication among the gray whales, their interactions with the orcas who prey on them, the role of whaling in Native American tradition, and the scientific apparatus used to track whales. It includes a 20-page annotated bibliography arranged by subject and a list of useful web sites. A definitive account; for public and academic libraries. Judith B. Barnett, Pell Marine Science Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Kingston Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Scientific American
The whale is Eschrichtius robustus, the gray whale of the Eastern Pacific, which makes "a twice-annual migration that must be regarded as one of the most spectacular achievements on the planet." Swimming close to the shore, some 26,000 grays travel from breeding areas in the central Baja California region of Mexico to Arc-tic feeding grounds near the Bering Strait and back-a minimum of 5,000 miles each way. Environmental journalist Russell writes sensitively about the past, present and uncertain future of these remarkable animals.
Editors of Scientific American
From Booklist
Each year the gray whale performs the longest migration of any mammal species--a minimum of 5,000 miles in each direction. Females give birth in sheltered lagoons around Baja California, and the males follow behind--to be there to create the next generation. After the calves are strong enough, the entire group moves north to the food-rich waters of the Bering Sea. Russell follows this long journey, delving into the biology of whales and the motivations of people who pursue them. Gray whales represent a successful story of animal conservation, and in exploring the controversies surrounding the species, the authors examine disputes over aboriginal whaling rights and a proposed Mexican salt-extraction facility. More positive interactions can also prove to be contentious, to which the rescue of three ice-bound whales in the 1980s attests. Russell visits sites along the migratory route and talks with scientists, environmentalists, and whale hunters, and the result is an evocative travelogue as well as a lively scientific presentation. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Robert Michael Pyle, author of Chasing Monarchs If there is an Ishmael for our time, it is Dick Russell. As Ishmael told the story of the sperm whales in the killing time of the great whaling fleets, Russell paints the panorama of gray whales today -- from their persecution to their amazing comeback, from their extraordinary migration to their engaging lifeways, from our love affair with whales to the peril we place them in with modern commerce. Dick Russell is our Ishmael all right, and Captain Scammon is his Ahab, in a magnificent yarn of human and natural history that Melville himself would read with gusto and praise to the skies like a whale's high blow. Look into this big bright eye, and prepare to be struck to the heart.
Book Description
Inches below the surface, [the whales] appear not so much gray as whitish blue. The immensity of these creatures is overwhelming. Fully grown they reach at least thirty-five feet in length and weigh more than thirty tons -- ten times the size of a large elephant. The mother dwarfs our little boat. The calf is nearly one-third her size. With a mere flick of the tail, either whale could overturn us. Eye of the Whale focuses on one great whale in particular -- the coastal-traveling California gray whale. Gray whales make the longest migration of any mammal -- from the lagoons of Baja California to the feeding grounds of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia (nearly 6,000 miles). That the gray whale exists today is nothing short of miraculous. Whaling fleets twice massacred the species to near extinction -- first during the nineteenth century and again during the early part of the twentieth century. As they moved in for the kill, whalers claimed their prey by naming it: "Hard-Head"; "Devil-fish"; "sea-serpent crossed with an alligator." These ominous tags suggest a fearsome creature, yet today the grays are most commonly known as the friendly whale, the species that inspired the whale-watching industry. Eye of the Whale shows the life-changing effect the gray whale has had upon people past and present -- whalers, hunters, marine scientists, whale watchers, and even businessmen -- who have looked into the eye of a whale and have come away transformed. Over the course of this astonishing book, the gray whale emerges as a millennial metaphor, mirroring a host of ecological, political, and social issues concerning our relationship to nature. The book also traces the remarkable story of Charles Melville Scammon, the whaling captain responsible for bringing gray whales to the brink of extinction after discovering the Baja lagoons in the 1850s to 1860s. Paradoxically, he went on to become one of the most renowned naturalist writers of his time, and in 1874 authored and illustrated a still-definitive work, The Marine Mammals of the North-Western Coast of North America. More than a hundred years later, author Dick Russell sets out to track the migration of the gray whale and to retrace Scammon's own path. This epic journey stretches from Mexico to California, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver Island, Alaska, and into Siberia and even remote Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. In these exotic locales seethe the current controversies surrounding the gray whale: an effort by Mitsubishi and the Mexican government to build a massive new salt factory within its pristine nursery area; the Makah tribe's renewed hunting of gray whales after a hiatus of seventy years; Japan's recruitment of the Makah and other indigenous peoples in their quest to resurrect commercial whaling. Eye of the Whale is a stunning work of scientific reporting and travel writing that greatly advances our understanding not only of the gray whale but of the natural world. While it may be impossible to know for certain the fate of this majestic creature, with Russell's sage guidance we may glimpse it -- in the eye of the whale.
About the Author
Dick Russell is the acclaimed author of The Man Who Knew Too Much and Black Genius: And the American Experience. A longtime environmental journalist, Russell's work has appeared in Boston Magazine, The Nation, Sports Illustrated, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. A recipient of the Chevron Conservation Award, he divides his time between Boston and Los Angeles.
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