Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale's Truths

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Summary: Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale's Truths
Review: A resident of Cook Inlet on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Lord (Green Alaska: Dreams from the Far Coast) delights in observing beluga whales swimming past her beach. White and relatively small, with upturned mouths that "smile," these animals are known for the wide variety of sounds that they make to navigate and communicate among themselves. Their declining numbers in recent years drove the author to investigate. A nature lover and keen observer akin to Alexandra Morton (Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us), Lord interviewed and boated with scientists, National Marine Fisheries Service naturalists, environmental activists, and native Alaskan hunters. An anecdotal rather than scientific work, this book will serve to raise readers' consciousness of the deleterious effects of industrial pollution, human population growth, fishing nets, boat traffic, whale-watching boats, and jet skis on the habitat of Cook Inlet belugas. Several maps and 12 pages of bibliographic notes are provided. Suitable for public libraries where Lord's other books have been well received, or where there is interest

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Summary: A new kind of nature writing
Review: 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.