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Whaling Season: A Year in the Life of an Arctic Whale Scientist (review)

Some scientists bring their subjects to where they are, but that’s not possible with the bowhead whale; therefore whale researcher Craig George (son of author Jean Craighead George) has spent years in Barrow, Alaska, learning about the whales mostly from the local Inupiaq whale hunters, whose catch feeds the town and provides George with samples that allow him to form a deeper picture of this species of whale. It’s therefore appropriate that the book focuses nearly as much on the Inupiaq’s relationship with the whales as on George’s primary research, and Lourie makes clear that George’s work offers possible benefits to the Inupiaq (demonstrating that their whaling is, in fact, sustainable) as well as relying on them. Even compared to the other high-action scientists in this series, George has an atypical life dictated by the needs of his research, and the book acknowledges that that’s been a conscious and unusual decision for his family as well as for him; the description of his scientific background gives credit also to the multi-generational tradition of involvement with nature in the Craighead and George families. While there are a few overhead photographs of live bowheads moving through the water, in most of the pictures it’s the harvested whale, staining George’s hands red with blood, that looms largest, a note of reality that may be an eyeopener to a few would-be biologists. In addition to offering a look at science in the raw, this might make an interesting counterpart to Jean Craighead George’s Julie (BCCB 10/94) or other fictional accounts of contemporary life on the northern ice. A glossary of English and Inupiaq terms, a list of books and websites of further interest, and an index are appended. DS