Price £17.95 (hardback) |
Edited by Toni Frohoff and Brenda Peterson
Review by Lenni Sykes
There has never been a more urgent need for this important book. With nine million people whale watching worldwide each year and swimming with dolphins recently voted in a TV programme as number one of things to do before you die, cetacean watching is a billion dollar industry that continues to expand at an alarming rate. We have to take stock of the effects of this industry both for ourselves and on behalf of the objects of our attention and this book does exactly that. 36 contributors, scientists, writers and the founder of Dolphin-assisted Therapy, all have their say on human-cetacean interactions - the possibilities, the experiences themselves and the problems for both cetaceans and humans that such encounters produce. It is well-researched and referenced and whilst celebrating the bond between humans and cetaceans it is hard-hitting in its efforts to consider the implications for cetaceans of our love affair with them. The predicaments and ethical choices our desire for close contact creates is most poignantly and movingly represented in the first piece by editor Brenda Peterson. She describes the bond she has formed with a group of captive dolphins in a swim-with-dolphins facility and her painful decision to withdraw from participating in such a relationship which by its nature makes the dolphins prisoners and the relationship unnatural and ethically wrong. Anyone who has ever been whale watching or swum with dolphins (particularly captive dolphins) or who intends to do so should read this book. I hope in doing so more people will put the needs of dolphins and whales above their own desires in making choices about interacting with them.
