Page 19 - Boca Club News - September '21

Boca Club News, Page 19

The Arts

Book Review...“Fathoms: The World in the Whale”

By Nils A. Shapiro would be heard by whales in waters near constant inner temperature. Out of the
Newfoundland some 1,615 miles away: ocean, the blubber smothers it.
The problem the equivalent to a shout on the streets “‘This whale has the opposite problem
with this brilliant book of Moscow being made out, whisper- to hypothermia,’ the wildlife officer
is...me. quiet, by people in London (though explained. ‘Though we were shivering,
sound waves travel farther and faster the whale, only yards away, was boiling
I had originally planned for aquatically)...The clinks made by sperm alive in the kettle of itself.”
“Fathoms” to be the subject of my whales last bare microseconds, but they Here, then, is a key to the problem I
Book Review column in the May proved to be among the loudest single- have with this otherwise fascinating, and
issue of Boca Club News, five months ago. I began reading it source noises on Earth. The 1967 launch very impressive, book. As rich as it is in
in late March with great anticipation, its subject matter very of Saturn V, the heaviest space rocket its presentation of the life of whales, it
much in line with my limitless curiosity for information ever fired, was quieter by comparison.” cannot help but give equal weight to the
about the creatures with whom we share this world—and For creatures so large, whales are critical importance that death plays today
this widely praised volume is devoted to the largest ever virtually harmless to humans; their diets in this poor animal’s story.
to exist on our planet. consist mainly of squid and krill. But, With formidable research, a masterful
Yet I have only now turned the last page of “Fathoms,” sadly, the worst predators of whales— vocabulary that matches any writer I
having set it aside for weeks at a time while, during these their greatest dangers—are humans. have ever encountered—and a clear
several interim months I have read and reviewed four other From the harpoon-decked sailing ships of compassion for her subject creatures—
books for this column. That is a very unusual situation, for past centuries to modern, giant nets on sleek fishing boats, author Rebecca Giggs covers in great detail every aspect
I have always focused on starting and finishing one book men have slaughtered millions of these creatures throughout of this life and death cycle–from the often tragic slaughter
at a time. all of the world’s oceans. And now the choking flood of of these giants for only a small substance, ambergris, used
I have asked myself time and again, why such has been plastic and other man-made pollution is fouling the seas, in the making of perfumes or aphrodisiacs...to the efforts
the case. The author, Rebecca Giggs, an award-winning and is being found in the bodies of whales increasingly by such environmental activists as Greenpeace to fight for
writer from Australia, has certainly filled her pages with being beached, helplessly, on shores. more stringent regulations against whaling slaughter.
an encyclopedic wealth of facts about everything one could It is a horror story difficult to read. There is a chapter that describes a number of whales
possibly want to know about whales: their millions of It was, in fact, the author’s first personal experience with beached in different parts of the world, each identified by
years of evolution; physical characteristics; relationships a whale. She opens her book with the following description, the contents of its innards. Examples:
to humans and other creatures; wide variety of species; which I am abbreviating here by substituting ellipses (...)
feeding, migration and other lifestyle habits. for text that I am eliminating for lack of space: “Cuvier’s beaked whale
Much of what she presents is surprising. Just as one “A few years ago, I helped push a beached humpback Bergen, Norway, 2017
example: Whales are more closely related to humans than to whale out into the sea, only to witness it return and expire
fish: They breathe air, as we do, and must surface at intervals under its own weight on the shoreline. For the three days
to breathe through the blowholes at the top of their heads that it died, the whale was a public attraction. Locals Thirty pieces of plastic litter: a filmy sheet more than
or they will drown. There is scientific evidence indicating brought their children down to see it. Then out-of-towners six feet long; shopping bags that once carried chicken
that whales’ ancestors millions of years ago walked the came too. People would stand in the surf and wave babies from Ukraine and ice cream in Denmark (the logos had
earth on short, stubby legs, then at one point slowly began in pastel rompers over the whale, as if to catch the drift not yet been dissolved by the whale’s stomach acid);
to enter a life in the water. Over time, their legs evolved of an evaporating myth. The whale was black like piano a wrapper off a packet of Walkers rips from Britain,
into dorsal fins, and their nostrils moved higher onto the wood and, because it was still young, it was pink in the still printed with a triangular recycling symbol. The
top of their heads to become the blowholes that are more joints under its fins. Waves burst behind it, sending spray Norwegians called it the Plasthvalen. A curator of
convenient for breathing as they surface from underwater. over its back. Every few minutes, the whale slammed its osteology at the University of Bergen, Dr. Hanneke
This move from land to water enabled whales to survive flukes against the sand and exhaled loudly—a tantrum or Meijer, said to Sky News, ‘That’s when it hit us. We have
the eventual catastrophic mass extinction that killed off the leverage. Its soft chest turned slack, concertinaed by the a plastic whale.’”
dinosaurs and all other life on earth, blotting out the sun pull of the swell...
for an extraordinary length of time, when a giant asteroid “‘Under its skin the whale is wrapped in a subcutaneous And another:
collided with our planet millions of years ago. envelope of fat called blubber,’ a man in khaki said, cupping
Whales are highly intelligent. They communicate with his hands. Bryde’s Whale
one another over vast stretches of ocean in what scientists “Trying to imagine the properties of blubber, I could Cairns, Australia
refer to as “songs.” As the author relates, using data only conjure the agar desserts sold in Korean supermarkets:
recorded around 1970 in preparation for the congressional opaque, calorie-rich, and possessed of a curiously Sixty-five square feet of plastic, including checkout bags
Marine Mammal Protection Act: unimpressionable tactility. While in the ocean, the whale’s with pharmacy brand names still discernible. Several
“Songs sung by humpbacks off Puerto Rico, for instance, blubber insulates it and allows the animal to maintain a disposable cigarette lighters.

Imagine the mother whale as she migrates thousands of
Everyone deserves a doctor who they giant nursing the calf that swims alongside her, protecting
miles between the Arctic and the tropics of Mexico, a gentle
trust and like. One who listens and them both against killer orcas, giant nets dropped from unseen
fishing fleets, and strange new objects floating by that are
takes their time to answer questions swallowed by both accidentally as they reach for their natural
food. Against such surrounding enemies, what chance have
and address concerns. A doctor who is they to live out a natural life? In the case of the bowhead whale,
the longest-lived of all whale species, that has been recorded
available when you need them most. as being up to 211 years!

For those that are spared the torture of being beached,
the author provides a detailed description of “whalefall,” the
term used to describe what happens when a whale dies and
I provide proactive, preventive, wellness & sick care to slowly descends miles to the deepest seafloor, beginning an
adult patients at my concierge medical practice. undersea process of decomposition by microscopic and other
tiny creatures never seen by man, comparable to the much
more familiar one left to hyenas, vultures and other scavengers

To discuss your health needs, and my care model, you on land. This, and other sections of the book, all too often
dealing with the effect of humans on our fellow creatures,
are invited to a complimentary meet and greet with frequently left me in a mood that required a break for a week
me - by video, phone or, when the pandemic permits, or two before my returning to “Fathoms.”
On balance, I have to say that the author has done too

in-person at my practice. good a job in that her book has moved me greatly, at times
to tears. I have learned much about whales from it, as I had
Please call 561.368.0191 to schedule your meet and hoped to. Sadly, I was reminded about the shortcomings of
greet with me. I look forward to meeting you. my fellow man, as well.

My hope is that the author will engender the same
compassion in many others, and will inspire effective activism
Steven E. Reznick, MD, FACP on behalf of whales and against pollution. She has certainly
Recognized as a “Best Doc”. Practicing in our community since 1979. put her heart into it in this book. “Fathoms” deserves a wide
audience among those of influence who can make a difference.
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