In a Mail Online article on 7th June, Philip Hoare, author of the critically acclaimed book Leviathan, or The Whale wrote of his encounter with a sperm whale in the Azores. "I've never been so terrified. I could even feel the click of the whale's sonar as it scanned me, physically reading me. Then it came close enough to touch, and turned its eye to look at me. In that gaze, I saw sentience. And all I could think was of one word: sorry."
Why was Hoare's impulse in coming eye to eye with this fellow thinker, dreamer and survivor to say sorry? The answer is obvious really.
Whales have been hunted for thousands of years for Food, oil, wax and a base product for perfumes. It only began on a grand, unsustainable scale in the 17th century and by the late 19th century, technology had allowed whalers to catch bigger whales than ever before. Between 1910 and 1969 over 2 million whales were hunted and killed including 350,000 blue whale, 807,000 Fin whale and 500,000 Sperm whales. The streetlamps of 19th century cities were powered by spermacetti, the oil from the head of the sperm whale.
This week the International Whaling Commission could end a 24-year moratorium on commercial whaling. The purpose of this they claim would be to keep a better tally on whale numbers and improve conservation, as any deal would involve bringing Norway, Japan and Iceland on board, countries that currently exploit a legal loophole to continue their trade, bringing about the deaths of around 3000 whales each year.
Sorry indeed. "They are animals before the fall, innocent of sin" said Hoare in his beautifully split personality book that explores our fascination with these gigantic, yet mysterious animals by weaving a poetic narrative linking the characters of Herman Melville, Ishmael (the central character in Moby Dick), and Hoare himself. It also works as a valuable document on the history of whaling and as a tribute to these amazing creatures.
He documents the physiological evidence for their intelligence: "whales and dolphins have brains matched only by the higher primates and humans with whom they share the same convoluted neocortex" and he notes their ability to display empathy, such as this account of the narwhal: "So sensitive are these appendages (tusks) that if broken, the animal suffers such severe pain that, in a remarkably philanthropic gesture, another narwhal will insert the tip of its own tusk in the exposed space, and break off the end to plug the aching gap."
Hoare is also keen to tell us about the complex social groups, or communities that were destroyed by whaling, that have left those behind with the task of rebuilding cultures, yes cultures, and societies that have taken millenia to develop. Of the Sperm Whale he wrote "the whale's complex social behaviour suggests a system of communal recollection, passing on information on feeding grounds and other memories. In an ever changing environment, there is an importance to the elderly" and continued "hunting may have fatally undermined (sperm whale society) by removing its matriarchs and, with them, essential knowledge needed to support the species"
It is a book that educates, and it is a book that can reconnect people, had they become disconnected, with wonder. It is a wonder that naturally takes seed in the young mind and one that I remember very vividly.
As a child growing up in Edinburgh I spent a lot of time in the museum, a place that was almost as fascinating for it's architecture as for its exhibits. Its Victorian Iron structure was lade bare like a vast skeleton and suspended surreally within this was another skeleton; that of a blue whale.
This was always the highlight for me, standing in the high gallery looking down into its vast baleen covered mouth where coins had been thrown. This creature that had once swam the oceans had become a wishing well. I wish we could just leave them alone for good.
The scale and unfathomability of the whale fascinated, like a dinosaur that lived on. I had never seen a live whale and as far as I know I still may never. The ones washed up on beaches don't count, for the only way to see a whale I'm told is in its house, below the surface of the ocean.
Hoare's book is a timely appeal to humanity. He notes tragically "Between beginning this book and finishing it, one species of cetacean, the Yangtze River Dolphin has been declared extinct".
'I know him not, and never will.' said Ishmael in Moby Dick. It's in our hands to change that.
Footnote:
Elaine Murray MSP has lodged motion in the Scottish Parliament calling on nations not to end the moratorium. If you live in Scotland, please contact your MSP and ask them to sign up to this motion.