Overview

From one-hundred-fifty-ton barnacled Blues to the sleek, embattled Minke, whales have been hunted worldwide to near extinction. Despite efforts to halt the killing, the future of these majestic mammals-known as mind in the water-is again in jeopardy. With passion and engaging detail, Andrew Darby profiles each species of whale and its place in this great drama. From the wooden harpoons of aboriginals in cockleshell vessels, to the high-tech killing machines of todays lawless Russian whalers and smooth-talking Japanese scientific crews, Darby chronicles the evolving pursuit of whales and its significance to our humanity. Fans of well-written history, as well as those fascinated by whales and the fierce international conflict surrounding them, will be swept into the very heart of whaling.

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9780306816291

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Reviews

Provides an excellent portrait of the whales themselves, historical whaling procedures, the current high-tech methods of the scientific factory-ship whalers, and the efforts of groups such as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Society to interfere with the hunt. Readers of Peter Heller's The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World To Save the Planet's Largest Mammals would be well advised to read Harpoon to get a broader perspective on the issues. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries, especially those that bought Leviathan, -- Library Journal Science Books & Films, October 2008 A very thorough study...Its style is very readable, and it makes a good story. Choice, December 08 [A] disturbing, dramatic, richly researched book...Darby describes in sharp detail the story of this ongoing conflict...Highly recommended. All readers, especially students of international law, whale watchers, and concerned citizens. Earth Island Journal, April 2010 Andrew Darby is one of the world's best-informed journalists when it comes to whaling issues...[He] has created a niche for himself by following the meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) year after year. In his new(ish) book, Harpoon, he shows off his expertise as he uncovers the full dysfunction of this odd global institution...Darby tells his tale with passion and verve. Science Books & Films , October 2008 A very thorough study...Its style is very readable, and it makes a good story. Choice , December 08 [A] disturbing, dramatic, richly researched book...Darby describes in sharp detail the story of this ongoing conflict...Highly recommended. All readers, especially students of international law, whale watchers, and concerned citizens. Earth Island Journal , April 2010 Andrew Darby is one of the world's best-informed journalists when it comes to whaling issues...[He] has created a niche for himself by following the meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) year after year. In his new(ish) book, Harpoon , he shows off his expertise as he uncovers the full dysfunction of this odd global institution...Darby tells his tale with passion and verve. Science Books & Films, October 2008 A very thorough study...Its style is very readable, and it makes a good story. Choice, December 08 [A] disturbing, dramatic, richly researched book...Darby describes in sharp detail the story of this ongoing conflict...Highly recommended. All readers, especially students of international law, whale watchers, and concerned citizens. Science Books & Films, October 2008 A very thorough study...Its style is very readable, and it makes a good story. Science, 10/24/08 Gives readers the sense of being let in on a secret world of high-stakes conservation politics being played out through international diplomacy...[Darby's] vivid descriptions make palpable, even for the most dispassionate reader, the hard-heartedness of whaling. Bloomberg News, 5/29/08 Shows how modern technology has stripped every trace of heroism from the business of hunting the world's largest mammals...Shows that the debate over hunting the leviathans of the deep is far from over. Blogcritics.org, 5/29/08 Enlightening and entertaining...Darby's book is important because, along with its mother-lode of information on various kinds of whales, it is both lament and warning...Is Harpoon yet another cautionary tale of man's abuse and cruelty to animals? Yes, it is. Do we need yet another one of those? Yes, we do. Andrew Darby, free of polemic, has done us all a great service, and it's best we listen now before it's too late...I urge you to read Darby's book. It will tell you a lot about whales but--and this may be what makes it stand out--also a lot about you and your international neighbors and how we've allowed our collective hubris to attempt to diminish the great whales of the world's great oceans...[Darby] offers up a significant contribution to the whale as mystery and marvel, while sounding a measured, but plaintive, alarm for dangers that may lie in the path of so magisterial an animal. Magill Book Reviews A cautionary study...of how commercial overexploitation has devastated both whales and whaling. Science Communications Provide[s] compelling insights into the animals, the policy makers, the fishers, and those who scramble to protect the species. PopMatters.com Darby's experience as a reporter is visible in his writing. The text is analytical yet clear, packed with valuable supporting quotes from authorities in every area. From international diplomats to whalers themselves, Darby has sought the right people to speak with...As well as being a wonderful and comprehensive analysis of whaling from its inception to the present, the text can be regarded as a parable of people's inability to respond to environmental crises as they unfold. PublishersWeekly.com Web Pick of the Week, 6/16/08 A definitive work on the past and the present of whaling...Heartbreaking accounts of the killing make this excellent book a difficult read...One hopes his exceptional history will act as a bulwark. Library Journal Provides an excellent portrait of the whales themselves, historical whaling procedures, the current high-tech methods of the scientific factory-ship whalers, and the efforts of groups such as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Society to interfere with the hunt. Readers of Peter Heller's The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World To Save the Planet's Largest Mammals would be well advised to read Harpoon to get a broader perspective on the issues. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries, especially those that bought Leviathan, The Economist 5/08/08 [An] entertaining and interesting book...Throughout the book, Mr Darby sketches the extraordinary characters he encounters with humour as dry as his native outback...Mr Darby takes the reader deep into the whaling issue.

Sydney Morning Herald reporter Darby ventures from Tasmania and Japan to Antarctica and Mexico as he tracks the ongoing destruction of the world's whale population.Despite the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, illegal hunting continues to take a toll. Darby profiles each endangered species in turn, digging though International Whaling Commission archives to root out the truth. The Right, a slow, steady baleen, was hunted to near-extinction in the Southern Ocean and the Atlantic by Basque and Long Islanders; protected since 1934, it was secretly chased by the Soviets but is now making a comeback. The Blue, a speedy Rorqual (the largest group of baleens), was routed by Norwegians and Americans from the Aleutians to the subartic seas of the North Atlantic. Out of nearly 40,000 Blues, more than 28,000 were killed at the height of the Antarctic whaling season in 1931, taken for the oil used in making soap and margarine. In need of protein for its starving people after the war, Japan resisted the 1931 Geneva Convention regulations to restrict whaling; General MacArthur's complaisance unlocked an industry that would shovel whale into the Japanese diet for a generation. The tiny Minke was targeted especially by the Japanese, who still pursue it and the Humpback in the name of science. The big-headed warrior Sperm, with ambergris worth its weight in gold, was still being hunted into the '70s, until Paul Watson of Greenpeace made whaling a lightning rod for global species conservation. Darby delineates both sides in the messy politics of whaling, and mixes in a lively bit of science and evolution. His study energetically underscores the need for continued vigilance in protecting these sublime ancient cetaceans.An exciting, in-the-chase, up-to-the minute look at the state of global whaling - nice companion volume to Eric Jay Dolin's Leviathan (2007). (Kirkus Reviews)

Science Books & Films, October 2008<br> A very thorough study...Its style is very readable, and it makes a good story. <p> Choice, December 08<br> [A] disturbing, dramatic, richly researched book...Darby describes in sharp detail the story of this ongoing conflict...Highly recommended. All readers, especially students of international law, whale watchers, and concerned citizens.

Author Information

Andrew Darby, reporter on environmental issues and Antarctica for the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), has covered whaling, whales, and their effect on people for 20 years. He lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

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