A Whale for the Killing

"The combination of man's genius for destruction together with the satanic powers of his technology dyed the cold, green waters of the Antarctic crimson with the heart's blood of the whale nation."

Farley Mowat

A Whale for the Killing

When I was a small child, my parents took me to a wildlife park in Sacramento, California. There I saw Orca's perform tricks in a tank. I had never seen the ocean. Up till that moment I had no idea of the life that the graceful animal in front of me might live, if it wasn't doing tricks for my entertainment. From that point on, I was extremely curious about the lives of the biggest animals known to earth. Free Willy showed several years later, and while I could understand the horrors of a prison and the quest to free Willy,  I didn't grasp the several of the important messages in the film until much later. 

A Whale for the Killing was published in 1972, but in 2015 is still extremely relevant. With Seaworld San Diegos breeding program being banned, films such as Blackfish, and books such as War of the Whales, attention has been drawn to the plight of the whales more in the past several years then it has ever been, yet whaling practices continue. More research has been done, and more is known about whales then ever before, but whales are still butchered for commercial means.

In his book, Farley Mowat recounts his memories of January and February, 1967, when am eighty-ton, pregnant fin whale became trapped in a lagoon near his home in Burgeo, Nowfoundland. While Mowat is excited for the chance to observe one of the worlds rarest creatures, many of his neighbors see the whale as a target to practice their shooting skills. In an effort to save the whale, Mowat calls in the media, scientists, and politicians. A rift forms in the town as support pours in, and tensions spring up in the closed tight nit community. Through this story Mowat interweaves the history of whaling and asks questions of the nature of being human.

I loved this book, and I hated it. I hated what it represented, I hated how such harm could be done to any creature, so thoughtlessly. The story showed how the consumerism and commercialism had replaced the substance way of life that had existed on Newfoundland up until that point, and I hated how that lifestyle drove people apart from each other, and how it drove them to think that they could behave amorally towards the whale who had become trapped. This book made me so angry.

I loved the way the story was told, I loved that it showed the whale was worthy the of moral respect and judgement that was so denied to her, I loved the way that it showed the divisions and powerlessness among humans, and I loved the way Mowat talked about the profound loneliness that we humans feel. 

The same things that I hated in the book, were the same things that made me feel uncomfortable watching Free Willy as a small child, are the same things that make me cry in kids films. The selfishness that humans are capable of and the callousness that we, as a species on whole display, when we decide that something or someone has no value to us. It is something I think we should think about more often, but something we seldom do. 

I loved this book. It was well written, the story was fascinating (if heartbreaking), and it was well researched.