3.5 out of 5 stars
The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.
I have a bucket but have never bothered with a bucket list. If I were to have one though, seeing orcas would be fairly high up on it. I had always thought of them as exotic creatures. To find them you would have to locate them on the pacific coast of America or head to the very stormy southern ocean. Turns out we have a pod of Orca just off the coast of West Scotland.
Dr. Natalie Saunders first came across them when she joined the crew of the HV Silurian in the hope of spotting these magnificent creatures for the purposes of study. There are about 50,000 of these animals left in the oceans and they are under threat continually from man. There are more than one species of orca and each region has a particular speciality in behaviour and diet.
The west coast pod is tiny compared to some of the other pods around the world. There are only 8 individuals left now and from what scientists can gather, they don’t seem to be producing any calves. But for how much longer is one of the things that we do not know. It is most likely they will go extinct in the area in the coming years.
The book is split into two sections, the first covers detail on each of the individual orca that makes up this pod, including some that are known to have died or have not been seen for a long time. The second section is Saunders’s account and diary of her 2014 trip where she first came across them
If you want to know a bit more about the orca then this is a good place to start. It is informative and well written and full of fascinating details. I did have a few minor issues with it though. Firstly, I didn’t think it went into as much depth as I would have liked, I know some of that is because studying these is not easy and that anything learnt is a reminder that we know so little. Secondly, I felt there could have been more on what we could do with regard to helping them, consumer and political pressure can change things after all. That said, I still liked this book, and if you are intrigued about these creatures then this is a good place to start.
Oh, I would love to see a whale, of any species really. Orcas are now inextricably associated in my mind with that terrifying bit of Attenborough where they hunt a seal off an ice floe by creating waves that swamp the floe, so I feel a bit less affection for them…
I would too. I have only seen dolphins twice. I think there is a lady in New Zealand who swims with Orca. Possibly way out of my comfort zone!
Definitely out of mine!
Haha! Yes. Just the thought of it
I’ve seen dolphins most notably when going over to and back from the Isles of Scilly. No orca though. Like you, I like to see suggestions and solutions as well as observations in my books now, even though we can obviously look that stuff up.
We can, but I think it demonstrates that the author is fully engaged with their subject