Thursday, November 1, 2018

Website Now Up - But 80 Whales Dead

Okay, I agree that the headline may seem bizarre. And it is, actually.

First, www.westernswhalesandoceans.com is now officially FINISHED. That only took me a month of blood, sweat, tears, and hair-pulling tantrums. I couldn't do all the things I wanted on this highly touted WordPress, but that's okay. It may be better in the long run.

People who actually look at my websites will notice I have no Order Form page. This is likely a mistake on my part, but my reasoning is sound.  Most people do not order books off individual websites anymore. Amazon has taken over. Barnes and Noble has taken over. Alibris, Powell's Book Store, etc. It's become a rarity when we sell books from our website.

Will I send out books if contacted? Absolutely. In fact I just sent out three copies of A Beginner's Guide to Owning a Mule  the other day. But these orders only come in a few times a year. We'll see how this goes.


Now to the 80 dead whales:

Last week's news of 80 whales dying on the shores of Scotland and Ireland was almost the last straw for the whale lovers on this staff  and probably for others around the world. According to Live Science's contributor, Tom Metcalfe, an "Unprecedented Number of Dead Whales Have Washed Up in Scotland and Ireland." 80 Cuvier's beaked whales, to be exact. That's a lot of whales! 10 times more than usual, in fact.

Daily the news changes about the fate of the ocean and its inhabitants. The author of the forthcoming Saving Our Oceans said she often feels "paralyzed" because of the rapidity with which mostly negative articles are popping up on news sources.

"There's just so much! I can't keep up, and I almost hate turning on the computer because it's become manic with ocean pollution information, wild life destruction, and plastic waste invading the earth. It feels desperately gloomy most of the time, but I sometimes see a tiny glimmer of hope on the horizon."  Not recently, though, with the report on Cuvier's beaked whales."

No one is yet positive about what caused the carnage, but research has demonstrated that the Cuvier's beaked whales are "...sensitive to the very loud sounds caused by anti-submarine sonar, which is used by warships hunting for enemy submarines and during naval anti-submarine exercises." It's a well-known fact that sound is very disruptive to whales. In the case of the Cuvier's beaked whales, the sounds cause tremendous pain. These are deep water divers and can stay in depths up to 9,500 feet for more than two hours. Because of the depth that they hunt in, the pain from the sonar is believed to have caused them to surface too quickly.

Will Cuvier's beaked whales join the long list of creatures that humans have caused to go extinct? It's already estimated that since 1970 humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations. 60% in 50 years! 

I'm going to say something here that will sound very stupid and offensive, but seriously, it seems like it's the naval groups that are the enemies: They have used the oceans like a garbage can, killed orcas for target practice, dumped literally tons of toxins and oil into the oceans, have whale strikes - well, you get the picture. Enough is enough.

Boats like mine are QUIET! 





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