Audiobook10 hours
The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals
Written by Peter Heller
Narrated by James Boles
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
In the tradition of The Perfect Storm, The Whale Warriors takes us on a hair-raising journey aboard a whale-saving pirate ship with a vigilante crew whose mission is to stop illegal Japanese whaling in the stormy remote seas off Antarctica.
For two months, journalist Peter Heller rode aboard the vegan pirate ship Farley Mowat as it stalked its prey-a Japanese whaling fleet-through the storms and ice of Antarctica. The ship is black, flies under a jolly roger, and carries members of the Sea Shepherd Society, a radical environmental group who are willing to die to stop illegal whale hunting.
The Sea Shepherd ship, led by the charismatic Captain Paul Watson-a modern-day anti-Ahab-takes extreme risks in defense of whales and ratchets up the stakes. The ship is almost sunk twice, once in a force gale. Heller re-creates a nail-biting showdown when Watson and the crew attempt to ram an enormous Japanese whaling ship on the high seas, trying to tear open its hull with a steel blade called a "can opener." The crews on board both ships know that there will be no assistance in this desolate part of the ocean. In thirty-five-foot seas, it is a deadly game of Antarctic chicken and a fast-paced, rollicking adventure in which the stakes cannot be higher.
For two months, journalist Peter Heller rode aboard the vegan pirate ship Farley Mowat as it stalked its prey-a Japanese whaling fleet-through the storms and ice of Antarctica. The ship is black, flies under a jolly roger, and carries members of the Sea Shepherd Society, a radical environmental group who are willing to die to stop illegal whale hunting.
The Sea Shepherd ship, led by the charismatic Captain Paul Watson-a modern-day anti-Ahab-takes extreme risks in defense of whales and ratchets up the stakes. The ship is almost sunk twice, once in a force gale. Heller re-creates a nail-biting showdown when Watson and the crew attempt to ram an enormous Japanese whaling ship on the high seas, trying to tear open its hull with a steel blade called a "can opener." The crews on board both ships know that there will be no assistance in this desolate part of the ocean. In thirty-five-foot seas, it is a deadly game of Antarctic chicken and a fast-paced, rollicking adventure in which the stakes cannot be higher.
Author
Peter Heller
Peter Heller is an award-winning adventure writer and long-time contributor to NPR. He is a contributing editor at Outside magazine and National Geographic Adventure and the author of Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsangpo River. He lives in Denver, Colorado. He can be reached at PeterHeller.net.
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Reviews for The Whale Warriors
Rating: 4.705882352941177 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
17 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book made me want to join the crew of the Sea Shepherd to save whales and dolphins. Their experiences with these sentient beings are amazing and their dedication is admirable.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Grumpy Vegan recognizes that it takes all sorts to make up the folks who constitute the animal rights movement. Among them are the celebrated heroes and villains and those who go about their work unsung but live forever in the hearts of the animals they’ve helped. Each one is unique – yes, that’s a cliché – but some (to mangle a phrase) are more unique than others. One such activist who is truly unique is Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Fund. Watson, a much admired figure in the animal rights movement and a hugely popular speaker at conferences, is someone who displays courage and tenacity in spades. There’s a fine line between genius and insanity, however. I can’t help but wonder, after reading Peter Heller’s The Whale Warriors, that Watson personifies more than anyone I know all of these qualities and is not only in full control of them but also has them focused on saving the planet. If I ever found myself in a life-threatening disaster I’d want to have the Captain by my side. It’s difficult to think of a better compliment to make about someone than that. Here’s what Heller makes of him after the Farley Mowat has a stand off with the Japanese whaling factory, Nisshin Maru."No doubt now—Watson is surely an anti-Ahab. More bearish, more charming, but just as terrifying in his fearlessness, and in his willingness to sacrifice everything, including our lives—to save the whale."Heller recounts his time on the Farley Mowat in the Antarctica as 2005 turns into 2006. The Sea Shepherd’s mission is to stop the Japanese whalers. Heller goes along for the ride and vividly portrays the journey taken."I stared at the throbbing green blips on the main radar screen. Was it possible? Had Watson found, in hundreds of thousands of square miles of Southern Ocean, his prey? It was against all odds. Even with the informer on board the [Greenpeace] Esperanza. Even with the storm that could now be veiling his approach from the unwary Japanese. I looked at Watson in his exposure suit and began to pull on my own dry suit. Watson turned to Cornelissen. “Wake all hands,” he said."The Grumpy Vegan knows he’d be useless under the command of Captain Paul Watson but he vicariously enjoyed the experience with grateful thanks to Peter Heller’s The Whale Warriors.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I am the farthest from in India and we do not see whales but something about ecology and conservation attracted me to this book and it was worth every minute of it .
Although this book is more than a decade old nothing is changed in terms of whaling in 2020.
I love the Japanese culture but did not know this side of Japanese brutality when it comes to killing whale.