Before 1965, killer whales were widely regarded as dangerous animals, considered pests by fishermen, often shot at and killed without any restrictions by fishermen, whalers and government agencies alike. That started to change when one man, Ted Griffin, braved getting in the water with a captured killer whale. His action was unprecedented and sensational, drawing shocked and astonished crowds of people who would had never seen a whale up close, never would have dared to approach one. Before long there was a scramble to catch more orcas and keep them alive- up to this point they had always been sent to rendering plants or dissected for scientific study. Methods were crude and rough at first, lots of whales died, and plenty that were caught didn’t last longer than a year in captivity- if even that. But within the short span of a decade, public opinion about orcas had flipped completely. Far from being viewed as dangerous, vicious beasts, they were beloved and admired by many. Which was only possible because one person thought to keep a whale confined, and show others it didn’t automatically attack (or eat people).
Gradually, though, the more orcas that were caught and put in pools, pens and even (temporarily) fish ponds, the more people began to wonder if this was a bad idea. Finally able to study orcas up close, scientists began to learn more about their acoustic sensitivity, their close social bonds, even the differences between pods that ate fish and others that only fed on mammals (unknown before). When someone finally realized how to individually identify and track orcas, family structures were teased out, and population counts were finally conducted. The public started to clamor for whales to be protected instead of pursued, and many protested their being kept in captivity at all. Lots of mishaps in this book, there’s accounts of Luna and Keiko and others. The narrative doesn’t dwell on the stress and poor health the whales experienced in captivity, though. Mostly the focus is on the people. People who first tried to catch whales, who tried to study them, who trained them and worked to protect them and all kinds of competition and political friction around their welfare. It can get hard to keep all the names straight- after a while I quit trying much, reading lightly to get a general impression. There’s a nice personal touch brought in by the many interviews, the author having travelled to visit with men who were involved in the early heyday of live orca shows, getting personal stories, opinions and viewpoints not often shared before. Overall it’s a detailed historical account of how public opinion changed so quickly about this one whale species. I much prefer stories with more depth about singular individuals, so that’s the only reason why I considered this book good and not great. However it was interesting enough that I made the effort to finish. Very well-researched, extensive notes and references. I have a long list of new titles to look for, thanks to this one.
I actually liked reading the history in this book, because much of it took place in the Puget Sound region, where I grew up. Lots of details of maritime culture, fishing and whaling industries and how they changed, things about the Seattle waterfront, and brief mention of how native tribes viewed the killer whale. One small thing I could somewhat relate to- Ivar’s. I’ve been to the famous Ivar’s seafood restaurant with my family (once). I didn’t know that originally the man Ivar Haglund also ran a small public aquarium. When it folded he kept the adjoining restaurant going.
Side note: this book has the best organized endnotes I have ever seen. Usually it’s kind of tedious to find the endnote at the back of the book that you’re looking for, so I’ll keep a separate bookmark back there if I wanted to frequently look for more information. In this volume, the endnote pages had the span of origin pages marked in each top margin, which made it very easy to find them! It’s a small thing, but I really liked that feature.
Borrowed from the public library.
