Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales [Hardcover]

Elin Kelsey (Author), Doc White (Photographer), Francois Gohier (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kelsey, a scientist and author (Saving Sea Otters), meditates in 20 linked essays on the resident and visiting cetaceans-including whales, dolphins and orcas-of the Gulf of California. To convey what's known and suspected about the underwater mammalian lifestyle, Kelsey interviews dozens of contemporary ocean scientists-Exequiel Ezcurra, Bruce Mate, Fred Sharpe, husband-and-wife team Hal Whitehead and Linda Weilgart-and places their research in context alongside data on African elephant herds, antelope and wildebeest feeding strategies, the behaviors of predators and (especially) the dynamics of her own family (mom to two young daughters, Kelsey's first chapter is titled "Extreme Motherhood"). Focusing on social relationships and culture, Kelsey finds research (including submarine observations of sea-floor whale carcasses) that reveals some critical and previously unsuspected roles. Brilliant at pursuing seemingly unrelated trails back down the blowhole, Kelsey illuminates the "humanity" of whales, and the human threat to them; for instance, she explains why canned tuna is never really "dolphin safe" (motorized boats used to herd dolphins away from tuna cause sonic chaos, separating mothers from pups with often fatal results). Kelsey's cogent, compassionate work makes clear the sophistication and importance of whale communities, and how current efforts to save them may not be enough. 30 color illus.
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Review

"An appealing, agitating foray into the world of whales that ignites both protective instincts and a hungry curiosity to know more."--Kirkus Reviews

Cogent, compassionate . . . Brilliant at pursuing seemingly unrelated trails back down the blowhole, Kelsey illuminates the "humanity" of whales.--Publishers Weekly

"Engaging portrayal of the lives and culture of whales."--The Economist

"Charming. . . . Will be of interest to all whale and dolphin watchers."--Choice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520249763
• ISBN-13: 978-0520249769
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #758,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous introduction to current research on whales, December 29, 2008

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales (Hardcover)

Professor Elin Kelsey has written 20 inter-linked essays focusing on the science of whale motherhoood. "Whales, I have discovered, are extremely dedicated mothers. They have to be. There are no safe places to leave one's baby to rest or feed in the ocean." Her essays are informed by her own role as a mother of two young children, and she draws many parallels among large female mammals -- humans, whales, elephants, for example -- who devote significant parts of their lives to raising their young.

She "travels to many parts of the world and interviews scientists directly." She adds information from books, research papers and the web to produce her well written essays, and provides an excellent set of end notes filled with resources for further study.

A few of the fascinating details that fill this book include:

Christopher Clark at Cornell tracks whales using computer images of whale's voices: "I can watch cohorts of humback whales off the coast of Norway, singers, that are separated by ten or twenty or thirty miles. These whales move as a collection -- an acoustic herd -- over days and weeks. If you and I were whale watching, we would be totally unaware that this is going on."

"Whale milk is among the richest on earth ... 30 to 55 percent fat. A blue whale mother produces 485 pounds of this superfatty milk each day. She nurses her calf for six months, transferring more than 88,000 pounds of milk to her calf."

Humpback whales produce bubble nets to corral fish "big enough to enclose a four story house. ... bubble netting is like a team sport in formation and the plays called by the captain change depending on what's happening in the game. Bubble nets vary in size and shape depending on which humpback whale is blowing the bubbles, how many whales are involved in the hunt, and what kinds of fish they are hunting."

Kelsey describes how whale calves nurse. It has been thought that they suckle through their mouths. But Shane Nero observed that "none of the sperm whale calf nursing sessions he saw looked like that. 'What we saw every time was blowhole to nipple.'"

Kelsey has many other fascinating insights into the lives of whales: the adaptive value of menopause and the importance of long lived granny whales, mating patterns, bonding between mother and calf, and much much more.

The book is well written, the photographs are beautiful and informative, and the end notes add a tremendous depth to the essays. This is one of the very best nature books I've ever read.

Robert C. Ross 2008

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding whales by looking at the roles of the mothers, January 14, 2009

By 

Erich Hoyt (North Berwick, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales (Hardcover)

This book is in many ways a collection of superb essays that read like dispatches from the frontiers of whale science, including current thoughts on whale intelligence, homosexuality in dolphins, the culture of whales, and how best to save whales. However, at the center of these probing investigations are the roles of mothers and their crucial importance to understanding the big picture. Filled with insights. Highly recommended.
-- Erich Hoyt, Senior Research Fellow, WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society; Director, Far East Russia Orca Project; Author, Creatures of the Deep, The Earth Dwellers and Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins & Porpoises

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Acutely disappointing., October 20, 2010

By 

Cornelian Lass (Cornelian Bay, Tasmania) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales (Kindle Edition)

Perhaps I misunderstood what this book was going to be about. I may not have read the reviews carefully enough. What I *thought* was that this book would be about the secret life of whales.

Sure, I learned something of the secret life of whales, but this was gleaned only after flipping through all the mind-numbing information on the author's children, Kip and Esme, how the honey-tongued local waiter tended to make women's thoughts leap instantly to sex, and what a trial it is to get a room in an inn when you don't speak much Spanish and they don't accept plastic. And so on and so forth.

I am not sure if Kelsey was trying to pad out the book, or adopt a girly coffee-time chat style (she called whale faeces whale 'poop', constantly, I could hardly bear it), or if she was trying to draw parallels between Kip and Esme's toileting habits and whales' 'poop'.

All I wanted was the whales. And I wanted an adult discussion of whales. Largely, I didn't get it. (Kelsey didn't have to talk down to me. Among many other examples, she didn't have to keep calling whale faeces whale 'poop'.)

Discussion of whales was largely confined to the Gulf of California, which was also acutely disappointing. Whales elsewhere are referred to, but why not include them in the overall discussion? I just felt that the author's wealth of knowledge was confined to one thing ... whales in the Gulf of California.

Kelsey also had a heavy conservation agenda. Many chapters/essays given over to her conservation agenda. This is fine, but I just wanted whales.

In summary, *not* a book on the secret life of whales, and possibly not even aimed at adults. Some whale life is discussed, but that only highlights its intense lack throughout most of the book.

I think the book should be re-titled, and I think the book's description should more adequately explain what this book is about. I also disliked the author's girly chatty style.

This was just not what I thought it was going to be. Acutely disappointing. If whales are what you want, be aware that much of this book is not about whales. I would not recommend it.