Mother Culture

"How does a whale find meaning in life? The question that will take us far from our comfort zone. At eight a.m. we are already traveling over deep ocean. Our thirty-foot boat, an open one, is crowded with gear, four assistants who traffic in curiosity and adventure, our huge dread locked Caribbean captain Dave Fabien, plus Shane Gero. Plus me. We seek a classic sea monster: the sperm whale, Jonah-slurping Leviathan of the Bible, catastrophic smasher of the ship Essex, Ahab-maddening table-turning star quarry of Moby-Dick. In myth, real life, and fiction, this is the whale that looms largest in our psyches. To that almost-never-glimpsed being, so famed for rage, the worlds largest creature with teeth we now seek the closest possible approach. For the next several weeks I hope, with Shane's tutelage, to narrow the gap between us." Carl Safina shares more in this piece.

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