PCB’s being banned in the rich countries in the seventies having ramifications on killer whale populations nowadays, confining them to the arctic regions.įrom this point on the main motive of the book, how whales and humans interact, comes more and more into focus. But through the placenta and milk the toxins are transferred to calfs. During the lifetime of the whale the blubber does not interact with the metabolism as long as the animal is not drawing on its reserves during migration.

These costs are due to the fact that killer whales are for instance the most contaminated animals, with blubber accruing heavy metals and toxins. Or that a whale was found with not only a matras but also a whole greenhouse that was washed into the ocean, in its stomach. I for instance never knew it costs AUD 188.000 clearing up a whale that is stranded. Rebecca Giggs starts her story from her observations of a stranded whale, but ranges far and wide in this book. We had a picture of earth from space before we had a picture of a whale swimming underwaterįathoms: The World in the Whale is an incredibly informative book about whales 🐋 Capturing the intricate and fragile ecosystems surrounding the biggest animals on earth in an intelligent and associative manner In the spirit of Rachel Carson and Rebecca Solnit, Giggs gives us a vivid exploration of the natural world even as she addresses what it means to write about nature at a time of environmental crisis. We travel to Japan to board the ships that hunt whales and delve into the deepest seas to discover the plastic pollution now pervading the whale’s undersea environment.

Fathoms: The World in the Whale blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore: How do whales experience ecological change? Will our connection to these storied animals be transformed by technology? What can observing whales teach us about the complexity, splendour, and fragility of life? In Fathoms, we learn about whales so rare they have never been named, whale songs that sweep across hemispheres in annual waves of popularity, and whales that have modified the chemical composition of our planet’s atmosphere. When writer Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beachfront in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales shed light on the condition of our seas.

Fathoms by Rebecca Giggs