Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale's Truths

by Nancy Lord

Book Overview

Living in waters adjacent to Anchorage, Alaska, the beluga whales of Cook Inlet are an isolated and genetically distinct population. Thought to number more than 1000 in the early 1990s, a sharp population decline has brought them near extinction. Original in approach and incisive in its questions, Beluga Days explores how conservation laws, management policies, and human behaviors have affected the shrinking beluga population. From hunters, regulators,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582431515
• ISBN13: 9781582431512
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Catapult
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A really good read!

This is a surprisingly good read! I was very impressed with Lord's ability to tell a very complex story in an interesting and engrossing way. I remained surprised that the book kept my attention and that I wanted to read on. I can highly recommend it!

Save the Whales!

The title of this review is something of a cliche. Whales have gone from being considered a natural resource to an animal that receives very favorable treatment in the popular press. At least in the United States popular sentiment has turned against hunting of these animals. Today, commercial whaling operations employ tour guides, not harponists. Whale watching has replaced whale hunting. But understanding these creatures and the challenges they face, as well as deciding how best to help them, remain strikingly difficult issues. 'Beluga Days,' by Nancy Lord, discusses many of these issues in detail as she focuses on a small genetically distinct set of Beluga Whales and the many obstacles to their survival. Nancy Lord is a Cook Inlet salmon fisherman living near Anchorage, Alaska. Like many others, she became entranced by the small Beluga (white) Whales which shared the salmon she harvested. In the 1990s, she also began to notice a sharp decline in their numbers, observations that were borne out by scientific surveys of the population. She then threw herself into conservation efforts only to discover that the issues and motivations of various parties involved varied widely. The population decline, it seems, was due primarily to native subsistence hunting. But the native Alaskan hunters, who were themselves subdivided into those with Eskimo and non-Eskimo heritage, were understandably upset at the prospect of acknowledging their mismanagement of a communal resource. Moreover, they were unwilling to give up yet another one of their traditional rights. Other participants also had different motives. In the book we meet many of them: George Hayden, the old fisherman who fondly recalls the "Beluga Days" when the town would celebrate a largely ceremonial hunt; Kris Balliet, a leader in the movement to get the Beluga Whales classified as an endangered species, but someone who frequently made mistakes in dealing with local Alaskans; oil representative Judy Brady, passionate about the Belugas and frustrated by the blame heaped (without scientific justification in this instance) on her industry; and Joel Blatchford, the Inupiat Eskimo who was simultaneously a spokesman for the hunters and for an endangered species listing. Each of these people, and many others, receive a sympathetic portrait in Lord's book. As she writes about these people it becomes clear that the preservation of Beluga Whales, and the best means of doing so, is a multifaceted issue. If the supporters of preservation had multiple agendas, the government to whom they were appealing had only one: proper political procedure. The book describes in agonizing detail how slowly both the state and federal government agencies moved even as the Beluga population declined towards critical numbers. Courtroom debates went on at length, various agencies fought over jurisdiction, and aside from a "depleted" listing among marine animals, little was accomplished. This was immensely

beluga days

Beluga days is an extremely interesting book for anyone that is interested in the conservation of marine life or nature in general. The story follows author Nancy Lord and she takes many steps in gathering information and researching the Beluga whales of the Cook Inlet in Alaska. She goes into detail about the problems facing these belugas. The population has been decreasing rapidly as of late due to excess hunting and pollution. She also discusses the major contamination problem in the St.Lawrence river which is killing off many Belugas as well. However, much more emphasis is placed on the Cook Inlet whales. I really enjoyed the way the book was written because if felt like i was learning about the situation along side Nancy Lord. The reader went along to meetings and different research projects concerning the matter. I also enjoyed learning about the political aspect of the issue. It was a very effective writing style. Although i enjoyed the book thoroughly i wish that alittle more time could have been spent on the St.Lawrence belugas because I feel that the contamination of their waters is very important due to all of the dead belugas found to have high levels of toxins in their bodies. Overall i thought it was a fun book to read and very informative. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in marine animals and the current problems that are ruining the oceans.

Beluga Days

Beluga Days takes an in-depth look at the plight of a distinct population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Plauged by over-hunting, these whales have fallen from a population of approximately one thousand animals in 1990 to an estimated two hundred fifty today. The book discusses the politics of regulating native hunting, the difficulties of getting the whales placed on the endangered species list, and the pros and cons of placing belugas in captivity. Lord herself is a salmon fishermman who is familiar with the Cook Inlet region and the ecosystem which exists there. She has observed the steady decline of the belugas from her own home and explores the reasons for their decline and the whales themselves in Beluga Days. Lord witnesses a native beluga hunt, helps perform research on the slaughtered whales, and spends getting to know the natives involved in the hunt and the importance of the beluga to their society. She also encounters belugas from places other than Alaska by visiting captive belugas in Chicago and going out on a research vessel to observe the ailing population of the St. Lawrence estuary in Quebec. Lord has managed to write an extremely informative novel without making it too complex or "wordy," as is the case with many science and nature-based works. Her style of writing held my interest but still relayed information. I also appreciated the unbiased point of view from which she writes. Lord obviously wants the population to thrive once more in Cook Inlet, but she also understands the significance of native hunting and discusses different opinions on the best ways to save this population. One thing about Beluga Days which I disliked was the monotony of its having such a finite subject matter. The majority of this novel discusses only one distinct population and the information starts to seem repetitive after reading for long periods of time. This makes Beluga Days a difficult novel to read in one sitting. Although this book would not be of interest to everyone I would recommend it to anyone interested in cetaceans or nature in general. At some points it may be easier to comprehend with some previous knowledge of whales, but is written simply enough so that most people can appreciate it.

A new kind of nature writing

As has been noted elsewhere, this is a new kind of nature writing, where the beluga whales of Alaska share their realm with Caucasian and Native communities. It not only describes the existence of belugas in their habitat, but also how human society works to protect, and occasionally, fail to protect, the belugas. The author is unsentimental but sympathetic in describing all the players in this drama: sympathetic to the needs of Native societies, sympathetic to the well-intentioned staff of various state bureaus and NGOs trying to protect the beluga, and sympathetic in a non-anthrocentric way to the plight of the belugas. This is an entirely satisfying read with no obvious defects to detract from a 5 star rating.