Whale Song: Journeys Into the Secret Lives of the North Atlantic Humpbacks - Hardcover

Andrew Stevenson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849016178 ISBN 13: 9781849016179

Publisher: Constable, 2011

Synopsis

As Andrew Stevenson and his young daughter Elsa watched a 50-ton humpback launch itself out of the water off a Bermudan beach, she asked, 'Why does a whale breach?' This was the spark behind the challenge to film the whales underwater that became an overriding passion. The first to admit he is not a marine biologist, Stevenson's "Humpback Whale Film and Research Project" has nonetheless provided remarkable scientific evidence of the whales' lives in Bermudan waters as well as their Caribbean breeding sites and Canadian feeding grounds. It has also resulted in this heart-warming, insightful tale of Stevenson's journeys with these awe-inspiring creatures.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Bermuda is the only mid-ocean platform in the northern hemisphere providing a window into the migratory social behaviour of North Atlantic humpback whales. Four years ago, as Andrew Stevenson and his young daughter Elsa watched a forty-five-foot, forty-five-ton humpback launch itself out of the water off a Bermudan beach, she asked the question, ‘Why does a whale breach?’
This was the beginning of an interesting and challenging project to film the whales underwater, fifteen miles off shore, in the middle of their migratory crossings. The whales have since become an overriding passion. Andrew’s unique, close-up underwater photographs and footage, audio recordings and close to 500 identifying photographs of flukes have provided remarkable new evidence of the whales’ lives in the waters around Bermuda, their breeding grounds in the Caribbean and their feeding grounds off the coast of Canada.
In the early 1950s, Frank Watlington, listening out for Soviet submarines off the coast of Bermuda, first recorded the ‘singing’ of humpback whales. Andrew has cast new light on the role played by these
‘songs’ in enabling the whales to communicate as they group themselves in convoys to run the gauntlet of orcas, or killer whales, further north. However, Andrew is the first to admit that he is not a marine biologist – this is his personal story of his journeys with these awe-inspiring creatures.
In 2010, Andrew’s pathbreaking work was recognized when his film Where the Whales Sing, which was co-written and narrated by his daughter Elsa, won the Best Emerging Underwater Film-maker Award at the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Monterey, California.

About the Author

Andrew Stevenson has spent over five years and over 1,000 hours on or in the water observing North Atlantic humpback whales off Bermuda. Born in Canada, he spent his childhood in Hong Kong, India, Scotland, Malaysia and Singapore. As an economist working for the United Nations Development Programme, he was assigned to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he remained after his two-year stint, obtaining his pilot's licence and starting a safari company in the Selous Game Reserve. His work on humpback whales has appeared in The Explorers Journal of the New York Explorers Club and he has co-authored scientific papers for the Society of Marine Mammology on his groundbreaking observations and data on the North Atlantic humpback. Andrew is the author of A Nepalese Journey, a photographic volume, and five travel narratives on Nepal, New Zealand, Norway and Australia. He lives in Bermuda with his Kiwi wife Annabel and their daughters Elsa and Somers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Constable
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1849016178
• ISBN 13: 9781849016179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 165