1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780915803321

Autore

Kelsey Elin

Titolo

Watching giants [[electronic resource] ] : the secret lives of whales / / Elin Kelsey ; with photographs by Doc White ; additional photographs by François Gohier

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2009

ISBN

1-282-36066-3

9786612360664

0-520-94221-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (217 p.)

Disciplina

599.509164/1

Soggetti

Whales

Whales - Mexico - California, Gulf of

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-189) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Extreme Motherhood -- 2. A Sea Of Milk -- 3. Looking For Whales In All The Wrong Places -- 4. Resident Aliens? -- 5. How To Make A Really Rich Sea -- 6. Popular Mechanics -- 7. Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who'S The Smartest Of Them All? -- 8. Building Nets From Bubbles And Other Mysterious Humpback Whale Talents -- 9. Do Baby Sperm Whales Suck Milk Through Their Noses? -- 10. Deep Culture -- 11. What'S The Use Of Granny? -- 12. Dolphin Snatchers -- 13. Friendly Mothers, Friendly Calves? -- 14. The War On Fish -- 15. Why Blue Whales Gotta Be Big -- 16. What You Can See By Listening -- 17. What You Can Learn From The Dead -- 18. Let'S Talk About Sex, Baby -- 19. Missing Meat -- 20. Shifting Scale -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.