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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 508
EAN: 9780792241027
ISBN: 0792241029
Label: National Geographic
Manufacturer: National Geographic
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 286
Publication Date: July 01, 2003
Publisher: National Geographic
Release Date: July 01, 2003
Studio: National Geographic
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Product Description:
For 50 million years, the gray whale has evolved along human shores, linking its history with human existence. Ancient and colossal, the gray whale weighs 45 tons and swims 10,000 miles along the West Coast each year from its Alaskan summer feeding grounds to winter birthing lagoons in Baja, Mexico. Proximity and beauty have made the gray whale a mysterious creature in the eyes of humans, sparking scientific wonder as well as many cultural and mythical interpretations.
In Sightings, Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson have crafted a narrative that extends far beyond the two worlds of whales and people. A celebrated Chickasaw writer, Hogan traces the history of hunting whales for subsistence and explains their significance in tribal mythology and songs. Peterson, an acclaimed novelist and nature writer, focuses on the world of science, describing the interconnectedness of animal-human relationships and scientifically reinforcing Hogan's assertion of the spiritual bond between people and whales. Together, they capture the realms in which the gray whale has become a legend, portraying the wonder—and fragility—of the whale and its environment.
Sightings is a story of tribal people, scientific researchers, fishermen, and the everyday inhabitants of the small, coastal communities whose lives are centered around the gray whale migration. A journey through water and time, Sightings is a masterful observation of one of the Earth's most enchanting creatures.
Average Rating: 
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SIGHTINGS is an incredible book to read on the plight of Gray Whales. Although I started reading SIGHTINGS the last day on a cruise ship in Cabos, (literally, moments after photographing a large pod of dolphins leaping out of the ship's wake)... my husband and I even skipped meals because I could not pull my head up from non-stop reading of this fine book. Linda Hogan's proses through a Native American's eyes were very beautiful and insightful... Brenda Peterson pucked my heartstrings with her naturalist perspective for this amazing mammal's plight and journeys through an OCEANPLANET, all the while a majority of humankind believes it owns it, yet refuses to accept responsibility for what befalls this watery world's consequence. I encourage all to read this book... its pages will open your eyes and one will not be dissappointed. Several years ago, I was one of many that wrote letters to the Mexican Government concerning St. Ignacia's breeding grounds of the great Gray Whale. The book finally told me of the outcome. When I am sailing on my boat named Rumbledoll in Neah Bay, WA this summer, or in Mexico next year, I will be searching for Gray Whales and their children... with a renewed hope of their perservation for many milleniums to come.
Jadia Ward/Bright Eyes Creations
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This book, along with Serge Dedina's Saving the Gray Whale: People, Politics,and Conservation in Baja California, is required reading for anyone who plans a whale watching trip in Baja.
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This splendid book is aptly named, for the powerful glimpses in these chapters, full of emotion and drama, carry the resonance and significance of a sighting of the heart-shaped breath plume and knuckled back of one of the largest, gentlest, and most enigmatic creatures on the planet.
Sightings is beautiful reading. Each of the short chapters is rich as a poem, and indeed, many read like song or poetry, each woman's distinctive voice blending and harmonizing with her co-author's.
This book is not the standard National Geographic fare--though the authors are skilled reporters and intrepid travellers, following the whales in kayaks, small planes, boats and ferries. Theirs are the sightings of writers who don't merely observe, but who feel their subjects and feel them deeply, who use their intuitions and emotions as well as their intellects to come to their powerful conclusion: that, in this era of mass extinction, to kill such a creature as the gray whale is "an act against creation."
How lucky are we that these talented, spirited women have written this compelling and important testament to that truth.
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