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The Killer Whale Who Changed the World by Mark Leiren-Young (Greystone $29.95)
Review by Jaiden Dembo
Nowadays everyone accepts orcas as beloved symbols of the Pacific Northwest, beautiful and intelligent animals that capture the public's imagination and adoration. When a B.C. Ferries captain announces there are orcas off the starboard bow, an entire ferry tilts in their direction due to a herd of giddy, camera-toting passengers.
But not so long ago orcas were maritime public enemy number one-feared and hunted as killer whales.
The Haida called them skana or "killer demon."; They ruled the ocean just as humans were rulers of the land. Their scientific classification Orcinus orca can be translated as "of or belonging to the kingdom of the dead,"; "bringer of death"; or "devil whale.";
Up until the mid 1960s orcas were regarded as ruthless wolves of the sea, as dangerous to men as they were to any other marine creature. In The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, Mark Leiren-Young dispels myths about orcas and shares their tumultuous history, from when they were feared as monsters to their new-found veneration as endangered sea hunters.
It was long assumed there were thousands of murderous whales roaming off the coast of B.C. until Michael Bigg, a marine mammal research scientist for Canada's Department of Fisheries, closely studied the behaviour of orcas in the 1970s and discovered there were only hundreds.
Thanks to Bigg and others, the 'southern residents,' an ecotype of the killer whales, were eventually placed on the endangered species list in Canada in 2001 and in the U.S. in 2005. As of today "the southern residents are considered one of the most endangered populations of any species on the planet.";
Killer whales are not man-eating pests that need to be eradicated. They are highly sensitive and intelligent creatures that need to be protected. The story of how this change in attitude towards orcas took place begins with the inadvertent capture of one young, 15-foot male near East Point, Saturna Island in 1964.
After he was appointed head of the Vancouver Public Aquarium in 1955, Murray Newman hatched plans to hunt and kill an orca in order to create a perfect model replica for the Aquarium's proposed expansion in 1963. Commissioned to kill a killer whale, sculptor Samuel Burich harpooned and shot at one but it did not die.
In The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, Leiren-Young recalls there was a moment when the Vancouver Public Aquarium's team could have killed the orca but empathy intervened. Leading the orca back to Vancouver like a dog on a leash, the team nicknamed it Hound Dog, probably after the Elvis Presley song.
Once in Vancouver the only place they could keep it was the Burrard Yarrows Dry Dock. On the one day the public was allowed to see the whale, crowds flocked to see the ferocious beast and soon realized that this apex predator was not the monster they had originally thought it to be.
The captors mistakenly decided the orca was female. Renamed Moby Doll, he/she galvanized the attention of the world. When he/she was eventually moved to a pen at Jericho, some local citizens and the SPCA pleaded for the whale to be released. "The first killer whale in captivity,"; Leiren-Young writes, "had launched the first anti-captivity activists.";
Months after her capture, Moby Doll died in captivity, drowning in the brackish waters due to exhaustion and low salinity in the harbour, at which time Moby Doll was determined to be masculine. His death broke the hearts of those he had played with, splashing them and eating out of their hands. Samuel Burich, the man who had tried to kill Moby Doll, had sung back to him and whistled to mimic his chirps and squeals.
The city of Vancouver and the world mourned the whale's death. Leiren-Young recounts how Moby Doll's death sparked a desire to learn more about these creatures and a global desire to favour conservation over killing.
Equally witty and entertaining as it is informative, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World is a captivating captivity story of adventure, heart-warming moments between mammals, and ultimately heartbreak. An array of newspaper articles, reports and anecdotes from important figures of the time are supplied to help take the reader back in time.
Moby Doll's story changed the way we see these animals forever. An obituary in The Times of London stated, "the widespread publicity-some of it the first positive press ever about killer whales-marked the beginning of an important change in the public attitude toward the species.";
This is an important B.C. story and publisher Rob Sanders (in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute) was right to ask Leiren-Young for a book after watching him receive a Best Feature Story prize at the 2014 Jack Webster Awards for his documentary called Moby Doll: The Whale that Changed the World that aired on CBC Radio's Ideas. He also wrote an article called Moby Doll for The Walrus.
A versatile playwright, critic, documentary filmmaker and humourist, the Leacock Medal winning Mark Leiren-Young is currently working on a feature-length film on the subject of Moby Doll. The film, like this book, will be one more step towards a greater understanding of these creatures in the hope that whaling on the planet will finally be ended and the slaughter of these noble animals will only be a distant memory. 978-1-77164-193-7
Jaiden Dembo is an associate editor of BC BookWorld.
Nowadays everyone accepts orcas as beloved symbols of the Pacific Northwest, beautiful and intelligent animals that capture the public's imagination and adoration. When a B.C. Ferries captain announces there are orcas off the starboard bow, an entire ferry tilts in their direction due to a herd of giddy, camera-toting passengers.
But not so long ago orcas were maritime public enemy number one-feared and hunted as killer whales.
The Haida called them skana or "killer demon."; They ruled the ocean just as humans were rulers of the land. Their scientific classification Orcinus orca can be translated as "of or belonging to the kingdom of the dead,"; "bringer of death"; or "devil whale.";
Up until the mid 1960s orcas were regarded as ruthless wolves of the sea, as dangerous to men as they were to any other marine creature. In The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, Mark Leiren-Young dispels myths about orcas and shares their tumultuous history, from when they were feared as monsters to their new-found veneration as endangered sea hunters.
It was long assumed there were thousands of murderous whales roaming off the coast of B.C. until Michael Bigg, a marine mammal research scientist for Canada's Department of Fisheries, closely studied the behaviour of orcas in the 1970s and discovered there were only hundreds.
Thanks to Bigg and others, the 'southern residents,' an ecotype of the killer whales, were eventually placed on the endangered species list in Canada in 2001 and in the U.S. in 2005. As of today "the southern residents are considered one of the most endangered populations of any species on the planet.";
Killer whales are not man-eating pests that need to be eradicated. They are highly sensitive and intelligent creatures that need to be protected. The story of how this change in attitude towards orcas took place begins with the inadvertent capture of one young, 15-foot male near East Point, Saturna Island in 1964.
After he was appointed head of the Vancouver Public Aquarium in 1955, Murray Newman hatched plans to hunt and kill an orca in order to create a perfect model replica for the Aquarium's proposed expansion in 1963. Commissioned to kill a killer whale, sculptor Samuel Burich harpooned and shot at one but it did not die.
In The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, Leiren-Young recalls there was a moment when the Vancouver Public Aquarium's team could have killed the orca but empathy intervened. Leading the orca back to Vancouver like a dog on a leash, the team nicknamed it Hound Dog, probably after the Elvis Presley song.
Once in Vancouver the only place they could keep it was the Burrard Yarrows Dry Dock. On the one day the public was allowed to see the whale, crowds flocked to see the ferocious beast and soon realized that this apex predator was not the monster they had originally thought it to be.
The captors mistakenly decided the orca was female. Renamed Moby Doll, he/she galvanized the attention of the world. When he/she was eventually moved to a pen at Jericho, some local citizens and the SPCA pleaded for the whale to be released. "The first killer whale in captivity,"; Leiren-Young writes, "had launched the first anti-captivity activists.";
Months after her capture, Moby Doll died in captivity, drowning in the brackish waters due to exhaustion and low salinity in the harbour, at which time Moby Doll was determined to be masculine. His death broke the hearts of those he had played with, splashing them and eating out of their hands. Samuel Burich, the man who had tried to kill Moby Doll, had sung back to him and whistled to mimic his chirps and squeals.
The city of Vancouver and the world mourned the whale's death. Leiren-Young recounts how Moby Doll's death sparked a desire to learn more about these creatures and a global desire to favour conservation over killing.
Equally witty and entertaining as it is informative, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World is a captivating captivity story of adventure, heart-warming moments between mammals, and ultimately heartbreak. An array of newspaper articles, reports and anecdotes from important figures of the time are supplied to help take the reader back in time.
Moby Doll's story changed the way we see these animals forever. An obituary in The Times of London stated, "the widespread publicity-some of it the first positive press ever about killer whales-marked the beginning of an important change in the public attitude toward the species.";
This is an important B.C. story and publisher Rob Sanders (in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute) was right to ask Leiren-Young for a book after watching him receive a Best Feature Story prize at the 2014 Jack Webster Awards for his documentary called Moby Doll: The Whale that Changed the World that aired on CBC Radio's Ideas. He also wrote an article called Moby Doll for The Walrus.
A versatile playwright, critic, documentary filmmaker and humourist, the Leacock Medal winning Mark Leiren-Young is currently working on a feature-length film on the subject of Moby Doll. The film, like this book, will be one more step towards a greater understanding of these creatures in the hope that whaling on the planet will finally be ended and the slaughter of these noble animals will only be a distant memory. 978-1-77164-193-7
Jaiden Dembo is an associate editor of BC BookWorld.
Submitted on September 5, 2016 in By David.
