Todd McLeish

This was a very good overview of sea otters and their recovery along the pacific coast from California to the Aleutian Islands. At the end of 2019, after having read [b:Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition|34523114|Island of the Blue Foxes Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition|Stephen R. Bown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492905622l/34523114._SX50_.jpg|55657351] by [a:Stephen R. Bown|113000|Stephen R. Bown|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1446517456p2/113000.jpg] I stated in my review, "it disturbs me greatly that so much is gone now. The toll on species and habitat is vast since the age of exploration to now and it isn't stopping. I only wish we could have done things differently." It was this expedition which was the beginning of the fur trade in the Pacific and the reason not only otter populations were so devastated but also seals, sea lions and other marine mammals.

I also liked the synergy of reading Return of the Sea Otter, which gave a brief history of the fur trade, and also concurrently reading, [b:Planting the World: Joseph Banks and his Collectors: An Adventurous History of Botany|53743272|Planting the World Joseph Banks and his Collectors An Adventurous History of Botany|Jordan Goodman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1591637353l/53743272._SY75_.jpg|84066496] by [a:Jordan Goodman|835693|Jordan Goodman|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] which discusses James Cook's 3rd voyage and how it was encouraged by Joseph Banks in order to establish a British presence along the pacific coast of North America and get in on the lucrative action of selling furs and pelts to the Chinese.

Unfortunately, I have gone from being an optimist to a pessimist when it concerns climate change and the constant devastating impact humans have on wildlife populations. I do enjoy reading about successes like the return of the sea otter to California, Alaska and Vancouver but I fear that the positive change will be short lived. I hope I am wrong.… (mehr)

I am a sucker for reading books about cetaceans. Some of my favorites include Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us, by David Neiwart, and The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare. Guess I should read Moby Dick sometime soon, eh? Anyway, not only did Narwhals promise to shed light on this poorly studied species of whale, it was also set, coincidently, in the same area of the world the previous STIQ (screw-this-i-quit) book was, namely the arctic waters around Greenland and Baffin Island. This was my favorite part of book. The author’s descriptions were sumptuous and made me feel I was really there. That was lacking in Blackfish City.

I wish the book had been more scientific and less anecdotal, though. The author’s journey was interesting but I really wanted to read about the whales, not his journey of discovery about them. And narwhals are interesting; as the author points out, they are the only species of whale exclusively dwelling in arctic waters (they don’t migrate out like some whales do) and therefore are the most impacted by global warming. They also have what no other animal on earth has: a spiral ivory tusk that spawned the legend of the unicorn. This aspect alone would have made an awesome book, as writer Christopher Kemp did with another whale byproduct, ambergris, which is, if you don’t know, a form of sperm whale poop that has undergone a sea change by floating in the ocean for months or years. The tusk does merit its own chapter focusing on its purpose for the whale. Scientists traditionally assumed, as many still do, that it is a sex-linked trait: male narwhals use it for dominance battles and to impress females. But this doesn’t explain why some female narwhals have it too, and why some whales even have two of them, and why no one has ever seen the whales actually fighting with it. The latest theory is that the intact tusk, being a giant tooth with pulp and nerves intact, acts as a sensory organ to gauge airflow, ocean chemistry, and air pressure, which, at the time of the book’s publication in 2013, was still very controversial.

The book also mentioned narwhal-beluga hybrids, confirmed recently by the discovery of this skull. The beluga whale is the narwhal’s closest relative, and since the narwhal is toothless, and the beluga has teeth, the hybrid possessed its own unique dentition with which it was able to exploit a new food source and grow to maturity. This is exactly how new species arise.

In recent years narwhals have ridden the unicorn’s train of popularity to become cute, cuddly cultural icons in their own right. Notice, though, how the horn has moved to the forehead instead of piercing the whale’s upper lip…which would probably be too freaky for young children to contemplate.

And while it has no bearing on the content, I want to give a shout-out to the book’s cover designer, who has created a simple, effective, design that harks back to the three-color ink paper dustjackets of the 1950s which employed strong, eye-catching forms.

All in all I did enjoy my time with the book and it served to wash out the bad taste of Blackfish City, which you’ll probably hear more about.… (mehr)