Watching giants : the secret lives of whales / Elin Kelsey ; with photographs by Doc White ; additional photographs by Francois Gohier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelsey, Elin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Whales.

Whales--Mexico--California, Gulf of.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Personal, anecdotal, and highly engaging, Watching Giants opens a window on a world that seems quite like our own, yet is so different that understanding it pushes the very limits of our senses. Elin Kelsey's colorful first-person account, drawing from her rich, often humorous, everyday experiences as a mother, a woman, and a scientist, takes us to the incredibly productive waters of the Gulf of California and beyond, to oceans around the world. Kelsey brings us along as she talks to leading cetacean researchers and marine ecologists about their intriguing discoveries. We encounter humpback whales that build nets from bubbles, gain a disturbing maternal perspective on the dolphin-tuna issue, uncover intimate details about whale sex, and contemplate the meaning of the complex social networks that exist in the seas. What emerges alongside these fascinating snapshots of whale culture is a dizzying sense of the tremendous speed with which we are changing the oceans' ecosystems-through overfishing, noise pollution, even real estate development. Watching Giants introduces a world of immense interconnectivity and beauty-one that is now facing imminent peril.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Extreme Motherhood

2. A Sea Of Milk

3. Looking For Whales In All The Wrong Places

4. Resident Aliens?

5. How To Make A Really Rich Sea

6. Popular Mechanics

7. Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who'S The Smartest Of Them All?

8. Building Nets From Bubbles And Other Mysterious Humpback Whale Talents

9. Do Baby Sperm Whales Suck Milk Through Their Noses?

10. Deep Culture

11. What'S The Use Of Granny?

12. Dolphin Snatchers

13. Friendly Mothers, Friendly Calves?

14. The War On Fish

15. Why Blue Whales Gotta Be Big

16. What You Can See By Listening

17. What You Can Learn From The Dead

18. Let'S Talk About Sex, Baby

19. Missing Meat

20. Shifting Scale

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-189) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612360664

9781282360662

1282360663

9780520942219

0520942213

OCLC:

773565064