An Orca mother here on the west coast has been carrying her dead calf with her, holding her aloft, for ten days now. The other members of her pod, whom we call J pod, are taking turns in this sad ritual, the first that we have witnessed of this duration.
Media around the world have been hearkening to this in alarm. The New York Times ran an editorial yesterday saying that if these whales continue to decline then we will be left with mythological stories to tell our children about their demise.
She is wrong.
In August of 2014 I took a whale watching trip out of Victoria BC. There had been no whale sightings that day but I went out anyway. Miraculously there were whales spotted, and it was not just one or two, it was 89 Orcas, the gathering of J, K, and L, pods, the resident killer whales of the west coast.
It was a religious experience for those of us who were there who love these magnificent beings completely. We were awestruck as they swam and breached around us.
After that I decided to volunteer with an organization on the East Coast who was working with the survivors of the Deepwater Horizon spill, dolphins certainly, but mainly humpback whales. There were thousands that washed up on the shore in the aftermath of this disaster, leading the EPA to classify the survivors as "toxic waste".
Now, I have always believed that whales are beings of infinite intelligence and superiority, smarter by far than many of the mammals, including us. I have always believed there was something infinitely sacred and magical about them and the way they encircled the oceans and surrounded us all.
But when I started to study them and to raise financing for this organization I came to understand that they are also the harbingers of the oceans. They are the pulse to warn us as to the overall state of the world's food chain. As such, our destinies are linked.
We will have no stories to tell our children because if the whales disappear, then so do we.
Media around the world have been hearkening to this in alarm. The New York Times ran an editorial yesterday saying that if these whales continue to decline then we will be left with mythological stories to tell our children about their demise.
She is wrong.
In August of 2014 I took a whale watching trip out of Victoria BC. There had been no whale sightings that day but I went out anyway. Miraculously there were whales spotted, and it was not just one or two, it was 89 Orcas, the gathering of J, K, and L, pods, the resident killer whales of the west coast.
It was a religious experience for those of us who were there who love these magnificent beings completely. We were awestruck as they swam and breached around us.
After that I decided to volunteer with an organization on the East Coast who was working with the survivors of the Deepwater Horizon spill, dolphins certainly, but mainly humpback whales. There were thousands that washed up on the shore in the aftermath of this disaster, leading the EPA to classify the survivors as "toxic waste".
Now, I have always believed that whales are beings of infinite intelligence and superiority, smarter by far than many of the mammals, including us. I have always believed there was something infinitely sacred and magical about them and the way they encircled the oceans and surrounded us all.
But when I started to study them and to raise financing for this organization I came to understand that they are also the harbingers of the oceans. They are the pulse to warn us as to the overall state of the world's food chain. As such, our destinies are linked.
We will have no stories to tell our children because if the whales disappear, then so do we.