The Whaling Season: An Inside Account Of The Struggle To Stop Commercial Whaling - Hardcover

Mulvaney, Kieran

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559639784 ISBN 13: 9781559639781

Publisher: Shearwater, 2003

Synopsis

Despite a decades-long international moratorium on commercial whaling, one fleet has continued to hunt and kill whales in the waters surrounding Antarctica. Refusing to let this defiance go unchallenged, the environmental organization Greenpeace began dispatching expeditions to the region in an effort to intercept the whalers and use nonviolent means to stop their lethal practice.Over the past decade, Kieran Mulvaney led four such expeditions as a campaigner and coordinator. In The Whaling Season, he recounts those voyages in all their drama, disappointments, strain, and elation, giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at the hazards and triumphs of life as an environmental activist on the high seas. The author also explores the larger struggles underlying the expeditions, drawing on the history of commercial whaling and Antarctic exploration, the development of Greenpeace, and broader scientific and political efforts to conserve marine life. He presents a rich portrait of the current struggles and makes an impassioned plea for protection of some of the world’s most spectacular creatures.For armchair adventurers, polar enthusiasts, and anyone concerned about marine conservation and continued hunting of the world’s whales, The Whaling Season is an engrossing and informative tale of adventure set in one of the Earth’s last great wilderness areas.
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About this title

About the Author

Kieran Mulvaney has written more than 200 articles on science and the environment for publications including The (London) Sunday Times Magazine, New Scientist, and E magazine and is a contributor to the Discovery Channel Online. The founding director of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Mulvaney is author of At the Ends of the Earth (Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2001) and currently editor of Ocean Update. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Reviews

Science and environmental writer Mulvaney offers a passionate, stirring account of his involvement in Greenpeace's campaign to end commercial whaling, taking readers through the history of whaling and of the environmental organization itself (which was founded in 1971), and offering an explanation of what's being done to nonviolently stop whalers' lethal practices. Mulvaney has participated in numerous Greenpeace-led expeditions to the waters surrounding Antarctica in an effort to intercept whalers and stop them from killing endangered whales. It's an inspiring story, told honestly and in a non-preachy style. After many frustrations, Mulvaney finally comes to realize that "at the heart of the conflict there is, I suspect, a fundamental cultural dichotomy... a profound contrast in beliefs over how humanity should relate to the natural environment." His important book deserves attention from anyone who cares about the fate of the ocean's greatest creatures.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Shearwater
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559639784
• ISBN 13: 9781559639781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304