A University of Whales

October 9, 2016 10:27 AM

Losing a large number of individuals is a tragedy, but what happens when we lose an entire whale culture? What do we lose when we lose a way of life? Every culture, whale or otherwise, is its own solution to the problems of the environment in which it lives. With its extirpation, we lose the traditional knowledge of what it means to be a Caribbean whale and how to exploit the deep sea riches around the islands efficiently. And that cannot be recovered.
posted by ChuraChura (12 comments total)

i don't know how much it would help if an international law was passed requiring all seagoing activity in the caribbean to return to age of sail technology but i still think it would be a great idea.

also i want to know more about the whale names, why pinchy.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:11 AM on October 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

I read the whole main article, and I find this as difficult to hold in my brain as I do the polar bears and all I can do is sit here and realize how awful things are. Yay 2016!
posted by hippybear at 12:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Reminds me of the situation with the Southern Resident group of orcas here in the Salish Sea. The social structure sounds basically identical too, which is interesting.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:31 PM on October 9, 2016

.

That's not the only extinctions we are faced with or lost lifestyles/cultures that will be gone shortly.

I'm afraid for my children and my grand children. The curse of living in interesting times is as unstoppable as a freight train.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Are we alone in the universe? Why aren't the E.T.s answering our radio signals?
Maybe they see how we are exterminating the other intelligent life on our own planet, and are wisely leaving us alone.
posted by otherchaz at 1:52 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Are we alone in the universe? Why aren't the E.T.s answering our radio signals?
Maybe they see how we are exterminating the other intelligent life on our own planet, and are wisely leaving us alone.

Maybe the E.T.s ARE THE WHALES and other assorted near-extinct species. Maybe we're just not listening to them the right way. We're not taking care of them the way that we should. We all need to be better stewards for this planet.
posted by Fizz at 2:09 PM on October 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

I'm reading Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood (a.k.a. the Xenogenesis trilogy), which turns on the idea that it is in our genes to destroy ourselves and our world, that given our hierachical nature this is a guaranteed outcome of our existence. I'm buying into that idea a little more readily today than I would have back when I was younger and the world was simpler, like, say, 2015.
posted by Lyme Drop at 3:33 PM on October 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

Or maybe free will is an illusion and we are no different than deer or dogs, unable to curtail destructive behaviors when unfettered by obstacles or predators.
posted by grumpybear69 at 4:01 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Thank you ChuraChura for posting.

Nothing about the mass extinction crisis makes me quite so sad as the possible destruction of cetacean intelligence.

"Hm. I evolved a giant brain but no thumbs. Guess I'll just jump out of the water a million times and invent language."

I love whales.
posted by compartment at 5:14 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was in Tangalooma last week. Even this late in the migration season there were many, many humpbacks in Moreton Bay.

We hunted them almost to extinction in the 1950s. There were only about 500 left in this population. Now there are over 10,000 and the population is growing by 10% a year.

That makes me happy.

Whales are awesome.

If you ever meet one while windsurfing, you realize just how awesome they are.
posted by Combat Wombat at 5:34 PM on October 9, 2016

Kudos to Dominica which I think was the first Caribbean island nation to buck the trend and stop supporting Japan´s whaling in return for investment.
posted by adamvasco at 10:42 AM on October 10, 2016

Sperm Whales Bring New Lingo to New Neighborhoods - "Distinctive sperm whale dialects reveal that the animals now swimming around the Galápagos Islands belong to clans that are totally separate from those that were around 20 years ago."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:43 PM on October 20, 2016