The Breath of a Whale: The Science and Spirit of Pacific Ocean Giants, by  Leigh Calvez , 2019, Sasquatch Books, 240 pages.

Anyone who has ever been on a successful whale watching excursion may have experienced whining children, complaints about waves, rain, or heat. Perhaps families argued, but then a moment comes that changes everything.  From the magic of the first misty blow, through the last sight of a fluke, the crew and each passenger are fixed on every movement as subtle as a slow, giant roll that shows a blue or green underside of a fluke or as majestic as a full body breech that splashes everyone on the boat and produces aftershocks of waves that send us grabbing for a solid surface to hold us steady while we laugh.  We are mesmerized. Leigh Calvez captures this magic as she travels the Pacific on a journey to know cetaceans: whales, dolphins, porpoises.

A Whale Book by a Whale Lover

Calvez collects data in Hawaii as a scientist studying the effects of sonar on whales. She serves as a volunteer naturalist on the Oregon coast during Grey whale migration.  Everywhere she traverses, she tells the tale of individual cetaceans and pods and families. Emerging scientific understandings and ongoing mysteries are offered within stories, so that the biology is never dry, and the reader never feels an urge to skim.

This Nature and Science Memoir Offers Connection

While The Breath of a Whale is part memoir, the information about Calvez’ life is light, and the point of view is that of a trusted friend taking you along on adventures. We know she divorces and raises her children alone. We know she suffers a life-threatening infection and septic shock. The details are few, yet they influence how she views the wild world.  Her scientist self lacked the confidence to publish her findings of calf stranding after sonar exercises in Hawaii, although, eventually she did so.  Her spiritual impulses lead her to pray to ask a False killer whale permission to be tagged, yet she understood this silent act might be mocked by science. She notes the slow scientific acceptance of assigning emotion to mammals.  Surely a whale who carries a dead calf on her nose for weeks is morning a loss too difficult to process quickly.

A Whale Book for Whale Lovers and Soon-To-Be Whale Lovers

This winter, your time will be well spent if you travel with Calvez and find wonder, knowledge and perhaps a connection to these great beasts, a connection that feels familial and spiritual.