From Publishers Weekly
According to the author, the St. Lawrence population of beluga (white) whales is doomed because of pollution; they have the highest incidence of cancer of any marine mammal, higher even than humans. Beland, a senior research scientist at the St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology who has studied these whales for more than a dozen years, has made numerous necropsies, finding high levels of mercury, organohalogens and PCBs. The belugas are the remnant of a large population that was heavily exploited for 300 years. Given legal protection in 1979, only about 500 animals remain. Beland tells an intriguing story of belugas trained for underwater spying by both the U.S. and Russian navies; they are superior to dolphins in target detection and easier to train. One Russian whale escaped from its pen near Sebastopol and made its way to the Turkish coast, where it became a local attraction. Beland tells us that there are about 50 recorded belugas in captivity worldwide, most of them originating in the Churchill river estuary of Canada's Hudson Bay. This is important reading for those concerned about the environment. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
In the St. Lawrence River, the beluga whales are dying wholesale, and B‚land (St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology) points a finger at the culprits in this absorbing if sorrowful story. Innocently white, with a great blob (known in cetacean circles as a ``melon'') on their foreheads, belugas are adorable creatures, cute enough to have inspired Raffi to pen a much-loved children's tune in their honor. While they are basically residents of the Arctic, the waters of the St. Lawrence estuary have sported an outlander population since glacial times. By 1979, when a protective law went into effect, the number in the St. Lawrence had dwindled to 500, from a high point of several thousand. Sixteen years later, their numbers still hover at the 500 mark. Overhunting was a major problem; they were killed for their oil and hides-- which were turned into such important items as shoelaces--and because they were thought, wrongly, to be depleting the fish catch. Now, after dissecting a number of carcasses, B‚land finds many whales riddled with cancer, poisoned by lead and mercury, and sickened by organohalogens (DDT, PCBs, and the like). If that weren't bad enough, military powers exploit the whales in an attempt to mimic their echolocation talents (US nuclear subs now have melons of their own). B‚land spends many hours observing the belugas: plotting their movements (including a fascinating Black Sea adventure), rapt in their songs, witnessing the first moments of a young beluga's life. The image of a breaching beluga ``became imprinted on my visual cortex, as if a chemical were seeping into my neural tissue and making a connection with some fundamental archetypal structure.'' Love, cetologist style. Yet, he writes, ``I can no longer bear to brood over belugas . . . I have reached the conclusion that they are doomed in the world we humans are building.'' Even Raffi couldn't lighten this tale of woe. (8 pages color photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
