Eye of the Whale: Epic Passage from Baja to Siberia / Dick Russell ; Maps by Eben Given. Book

More than a century ago, the whaler Charles Melville Scammon chased pods of grey whales across the Pacific, slaughtering them by the hundreds and driving them nearly to the point of extinction. In Eye of the Whale, Dick Russell, a noted conservationist and journalist, follows Scammon's wake, bringing news both good and bad about the condition of the grey whale today. Chronicling a journey along Pacific grey whale routes from Sakhalin Island to the southern tip of Baja California, Russell braces his narrative with the long, politically charged tale of an effort by a Japanese corporation to build a salt-e xtraction plant on a Mexican lagoon that has served for ages as an important grey whale breeding ground. Writing knowingly of grey whale natural history, and of the effects such an alteration of the environment would have on the species, Russell then turns to other controversial threats to the grey, such as the Washing ton Makah tribe's decision in the late 1990s to revive a lost tradition of whale-hunting, and the Japanese government's refusal to honour international treaties protecting the grey and other whale species from widespread depredation.The good news, as Russell writes, is that the Mexican salt plant was eventually stopped. The bad news is that the grey whale is still everywhere under siege. Though it does not displace recent books such as Serge Dedina's Saving the Gray Whale and Robert Sullivan's A Whale Hunt, Russell's is by far the most complete popular account of the grey whale across its wide range, and it makes useful reading for anyone seeking to learn more about this key marine species. --Gregory McNameeRead More