Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us Review & Ratings

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Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us Review

Alexandra Morton learns from listening to whales. It is surprising to think that only a few decades ago, no one had studied, much less made commercial recordings of, the voices of whales. Some, like the eccentric researcher John C. Lilly, had made much of the vocalizations of dolphins, but we knew a lot more about the animals who sang in the air where we could hear them. Morton has written about her scientific career in _Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us_ (Ballantine Books). There is a good deal of scientific information in it, often understated and certainly not with the sort of detail Morton must use in her papers. She can specify that orcas do not use a single sound to match a single behavior, for instance; it is the frequency of the sound that makes a difference, signaling tranquility or the need for a pod to change direction. Resident orcas, near the shore, could be vocal and splashy, because the fish on which they feed have not learned to listen for them. Transient orcas, traveling the seas and living on alert mammals that pay attention to sounds of danger, have evolved to be quieter and more stealthy.
There's plenty of general science in the book, about how orcas fish, mate, socialize, and raise families. But Morton's volume is one in a series of an appealing subgenre of memoir, that of the woman scientist. She was a high school dropout because she wanted to do research on mice more than doing regular studies. She chanced upon a job with maverick dolphin investigator, John C. Lilly, and then went on to do sound studies on orcas in tanks at Marineland. In 1979, she began to listen to orcas in the wild, using hydrophones originally developed to track submarines. At that time, orcas were a mystery; how they socialized, where they wintered, even what they ate could only be guessed at. Morton helped provide her share of answers, especially those bearing on their language. She married a man who photographed orcas underwater; he was eyes and she was ears. They had a son, and some of Morton's most endearing words have to do with how, in an extreme environment and with research duties looming, she handled little Jarret. She had to deal with widowhood, and primitive conditions in a wild area, but she loved the work. Sadly, her whales were driven away from her home waters because of salmon farming, which Morton covers in the last part of a the book. Not only the whales have suffered.
Morton is not a pessimist. Her book shines with hope for her whales and her planet, but she makes it clear that we are going to make mistakes in predicting how we can "control" nature. She has become an ecological advocate for her home territory, learning such useful techniques as bypassing local government and talking (via Internet) to an expert she can partner with to do research on the respective individual effects of salmon farming on her world. Her findings are getting easily published this way without delay or grant-seeking. She is making a difference; it isn't known if it will be enough. Her book is a wonderful examination of a life she has lived on her own terms, and lived well. It is easy to catch her enthusiasm, and this would be a wonderful book for a young person interested in science.

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