SELECT REGION

Reading about the Great Whales

Most books with a whale as the main character are written for young readers or scientists. Travelers who will be whale watching in Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil or elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere may want to consider the following:

Return to Previous Page

Reading about the Great Whales

Of course, the most famous book about sperm whales is Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby Dick. It is the logical first choice for any traveler who might encounter the species during Chile tours or elsewhere. An excellent non-fiction option is British writer Philip Hoare’s well-reviewed 2010 book, The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea. It is mostly about the sperm whale with much information about the species’ history and many references to the origins of Moby Dick but also tells about other of the great whales and orcas.

Moby Dick was inspired by a sperm whale’s famous sinking of the American whaler, Essex, as depicted by surviving sailor Owen Chase’s Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. Also in print is the biography, Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex, by Thomas Hefferman. Most recently, American writer Nathaniel Philbrick received the National Book Award for his 2001 book, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, which makes fascinating reading during one’s shipboard travel on Antarctica tours or a Galapagos Islands cruise.

Wild Blue: A Natural History of the World’s Largest Animal (2008), by Dan Bortolotti, makes perfect reading for anyone traveling to locations where blue whales might be seen, such as Chile tours.

Anyone contemplating Antarctica whale watching tours will appreciate Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling (2008) by Australian writer, Andrew Darby. It offers an historical overview of modern whaling and the International Whaling Commission’s efforts to control the few nations trying to keep the industry alive. The book offers an environmental journalist’s take on the politics of whaling.

To read about the modern history of the southern minke and its recent rise to fame before your travel to Antarctica, there is Sea Shepherd by Greenpeace founder and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society President, Paul Watson. This 1980 book tells about his radical environmental organization’s fight to save the Antarctic minkes, doing battle every Austral summer with Japanese whaling ships. It chronicles the volunteers’ activities that have kept whaling in the headlines for decades. If you prefer the TV version, the first two seasons of Watson’s show, Whale Wars, are available on DVD. The gripping Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet’s Largest Mammals (reprinted in 2008) by American adventure travel writer, Peter Heller, is about the same subject and will prepare you for your Antarctica tours.

The well-reviewed, informative collection of essays, Watching Giants: The Secret Life of Whales (2009), by scientist Elin Kelsey, describes the lifestyle and mysteries of the many whale species that inhabit the Gulf of California. Some of the same species occupy waters further south so will be of interest to those planning Peru tours, Costa Rica travel or whale watching tours to other destinations.

At first glance, a person planning to travel to Ecuador might consider the 2008 book, Whale Odyssey, A Humpback Whale’s First Perilous Year, a mismatch. It chronicles twelve months in the life of a humpback calf in its roundtrip migration from Hawaii to Alaska. Yet the perils are the same the world over, describing dramatic encounters with orcas and other predators on the prowl. The well-written book by award-winning British broadcast journalist, Michael Bright, would make gripping vacation reading on whale watching Costa Rica tours and other Southern Hemisphere destinations where humpbacks are found.

SOUTHERN EXPLORATIONS
IS A PROUD
MEMBER / SPONSOR / AWARDEE OF THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS