Whales, Technology, and Obesity
Flying up the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City to Labrador and Newfoundland I saw about 100 whales in the water. This at the same time that the newspapers were covering a debate about whether to allow renewed commercial whaling. It is so easy to find whales from a plane, especially when the water is flat like the upstream portion of the river where the whales swim to find the richest food. You just look for streaks of bubbles like a dotted line and the whale will be at the front. What chance do these animals have against modern technology? None, obviously. Yet must we ban whaling? Perhaps a compromise would be to allow whaling but only with the technology described in the book Moby Dick. The whales had more of a chance back then and not infrequently managed to kill their hunters.
But maybe as the world population becomes ever more obese people will feel a greater kinship to these multi-ton creatures. Once we’re all incredibly fat and easy to spot from an airplane we will have enough sympathy for whales to leave them alone.
[If you are looking for a summer trip and wish to see a lot of whales without getting seasick, you can see Belugas, Humpbacks, Blues(!), et al., at the confluence of the Saguenay and St. Lawrence rivers (tourism site). Sadly there is no airport right near the town of Tadoussac (Charlevoix is closest) but it is only about a 2.5-hour drive from Quebec City, right along the lake shore with a beautiful cathedral and then a big casino on the way.]
