Feature story - June 24, 2003
Looking for the inside scoop on what it's really like to be on a Greenpeace ship battling commercial whalers at the end of the earth? Or how to deal simultaneously with seasickness, brutal cold, deadly icebergs, fog, equipment breakdown and exploding harpoons? A new book by Kieran Mulvaney shines a bright light on these details and more.
by John Passcantando, Greenpeace USA Executive
Director
The book entitled The Whaling Season: An Inside Account of
the Struggle to Stop Commercial Whaling, written by former
Greenpeacer Kieran Mulvaney, describes all this in detail -- the
good, the bad, and the ugly.
For our supporters and the Greenpeace staff, chasing the whalers
is a mythological journey -- the stuff that dreams are made of. But
for Kieran Mulvaney, the adventure was mythology plus a whole lot
more. Sometimes it's pure Ulysses out there, and sometimes it's
boredom, claustrophobia and the dream of a simple meal back home.
It's also about good old fashioned luck and the determination of a
crew that finds a way to defend these great, innocent, intelligent
whales against the longest odds.
But be careful with this book. If you are vulnerable to a
midlife crisis, The Whaling Season could land you in a
cold, dark and wet place instead of a Corvette. Keep it away from
your kids too -- unless you want to see them bail out of that nice
summer job you landed for them at the local coffee shop.
Purchase the book from Island
Press
Read more about
the 2002 Southern Ocean expedition headed by Kieran
Mulvaney