Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey (Adventure Press) [Hardcover]

Brenda Peterson (Author), Linda Hogan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Adventure Press | Publication Date: August 1, 2002

Leading natural history writer and award-winning Native American essayist team up to explore the environmental and cultural controversy surrounding the mysterious 10,000-mile migration of the 45-ton Eastern Pacific gray whale - the only viable species of gray whale left in the world - as it travels between Alaskan summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea and winter birthing lagoons in Baja, Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The gray whale is probably the most watched of all the whales as their yearly migration along the Pacific coast brings them close to the many watchers on shore and in boats. Peterson, a nature writer, and Hogan, a Native American poet, spent seven years following the whales' migration and talking with people affected by the whales. The two voices of the authors are rendered in different type, with Hogan's more philosophical musing on the relationship between human and whale juxtaposed with Peterson's more reporterly presentation of gray whale natural history and of the people who interact with them. Starting with a visit to the calving grounds in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California, the authors socialize with the whales known as "friendlies" because they choose to approach people. Other sections follow the migration, showcase differing viewpoints on the Makah tribe's renewed hunting of whales and on aboriginal whaling in general, and discuss the summer home of the gray whales in the Arctic seas, where the whales feast and grow fat for their return journey south. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792279891
• ISBN-13: 978-0792279891
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,486,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Like a Song, September 1, 2002

By 

Sy Montgomery (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey (Adventure Press) (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SIGHTINGS, May 3, 2005

By 

Jadia L. Ward "Bright Eyes Creations" (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey (Paperback)

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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ, December 4, 2010

By 

srvivr2 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey (Paperback)

I just finished this book today. If you are at all interested in whales, their history and their natural mystery than this book is for you.
I plan to go to San Ignacio Lagoon February 2011 on a Baja Expedition.
People in this book have done this expedition themselves and explain what they experienced. I can't wait!!!