Eye of the Whale (39 page)
Authors: Douglas Carlton Abrams
An equally invaluable guide in the area of endocrine disruption and ecotoxicology has been John Peterson Myers, Ph.D. Pete is CEO and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences and former senior vice president for science at the National Audubon Society. He is the co-author of the now classic
Our Stolen Future
and one of the world’s leading experts on endocrine disruption. The lecture that my fictional Gladys Ginsburg gives is almost entirely based on his lecture and slide show, which I had the opportunity to see at the American Holistic Medical Association. The standing ovation he received there was just a small expression of the gratitude that he and his colleagues deserve for their incredible work educating us about the dangers that
toxins pose in the environment. Devra Davis, Ph.D., is the author of the anguishing and fascinating
When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution.
Pete and Devra not only taught me about the issues, but were kind enough to read my manuscript to make sure that the novel accurately presented the facts. I would also like to thank Ken Cook and his pioneering nonprofit, the Environmental Working Group, for all of their dedicated work on behalf of the environment and his support of the novel. Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., and her two poetic books
Living Downstream
and
Having Faith
were also a great inspiration.
Many legislators are trying to address the environmental crises we face. I would like to thank Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Frank Lautenberg, and their colleagues in Congress who are working to help protect our environment and our children. Witnessing Senator Boxer chair the Committee on Environment and Public Works inspired the congressional hearing chapter in the novel. The testimony that was received that day on the human impact of global warming from then-CDC director Julie Gerberding, M.D., was heavily “edited” (many said censored). My daughter Kayla sat through the hearing at the tender age of eight and melted down only once or twice.
Brenda McCowan, Ph.D., who has been studying whale social sounds at the University of California, Davis, was extremely helpful in answering questions about whale communication and whale intelligence as well as about UC Davis, where much of the novel takes place.
In discussing the novel, my advisers and I were hypothesizing a mother-baby contact call. It was to our delight that Rebecca Dunlop, Ph.D., at the University of Queensland, discovered this exact social sound being used between mothers and their calves. Rebecca also confirmed the existence of social sounds in whale songs, although she believes their function may be different from their function in social communication. She was extremely helpful in explaining what
can and can’t be said about whale communication given our current state of knowledge. Pierre Béland confirmed my portrayal of an autopsy of a beluga whale, and his own lyrical writing about these “white whales” in
A Farewell to Whales
was very moving.
Marine biologist and whaling expert Nathalie Ward, Ph.D., was my host and guide on the wonderful island of Bequia and helped me to understand the culture and the role of the whalers. She has been studying humpback whales for more than twenty years as the director of the Eastern Caribbean Cetacean Network, and is the author of the definitive book on Bequia whaling,
Blows, Mon, Blows.
She has become a dear friend and helped to advise me throughout the writing of the book. Any authenticity in the rendering of Bequia is largely from her deep fund of knowledge and years on the island.
I am also indebted to the linguists who helped me with the subtleties of Bequian English. I would especially like to thank James Walker, Ph.D., of York University, who reviewed every line of dialogue spoken by a Bequian character. James helped me to appreciate the rich and unique qualities of Bequian English, which, he explained, can vary from speaker to speaker and from situation to situation. Once again, any errors here are my own.
I would like to thank the whalers of Bequia whom I had the opportunity to meet. One of the heroes of the book is a fictionalized whaler, and I tried to portray the whalers’ love of the ocean, their cultural history, and their own deep knowledge and respect for the whales they hunt. The people of Bequia deserve my appreciation for their hospitality. I hope I have done justice to the beauty of their island and the warmth of their culture.
I was inspired to write the book by a whale named Humphrey, who swam up the Sacramento River in 1985. In amazing serendipity, while I was working on the novel, two more humpback whales—a mother-and-calf pair named Delta and Dawn—swam up the Sacramento. I watched the whale rescue firsthand and met two incredible
individuals who were significantly involved in conducting this successful rescue. Frances Gulland, director of veterinary science at the Marine Mammal Center, one of the truly great organizations working on behalf of marine mammals, answered innumerable questions and read several drafts. Frances’s devotion to the whales and to marine mammals in general informed and inspired Elizabeth’s quest to save Apollo.
I also got to work with Coast Guard Lieutenant Robert Bixler. He helped me to understand the Coast Guard’s role in the rescue and helped me to portray the numerous technical details about boats and helicopters in the book. Rob has that extraordinary mix of professionalism and kindness that inspires trust and admiration. If I ever need to be rescued at sea, I would hope Rob was captaining the vessel.
I also want to thank Rachel Thompson, a veterinarian at Discovery World, for her help figuring out how one might inject a humpback whale calf in the open ocean and what their veins would feel like.
Scott Davis was my guide into the extraordinary world of white sharks, where I could learn firsthand that so many fears about sharks are undeserved. Instead, I found a vulnerable apex predator that only on rare occasions attacks humans and that needs our greatest protection. Scott has a lot of experience tagging white sharks and was involved in the research that demonstrated that they migrate thousands of miles each year back to the same feeding grounds. Scott is currently the resident naturalist for eco-tour operator Great White Adventures, and it was thrilling to cage-dive with the sharks out in the frigid waters off the Farallones. Scott is a superb photographer, and I’ve included several of his images of sharks on my website.
Elizabeth’s unusual half-Jewish and half-Native American heritage was inspired by my friend, the gifted novelist Greg Sarris, who has this dual tribal heritage. Greg is the tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a federally recognized tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo. I thank Greg for helping me with
the development of Elizabeth’s heritage and character. I also thank two Miwok language experts, Richard Applegate and Catherine Callaghan, although unfortunately the Miwok terms they helped me with were cut, along with a scene of Elizabeth visiting her father.
There is a great deal of medical science in the novel, and it certainly helps to be married to a physician. I also relied on the expertise of others, notably Loren Rauch, M.D., who is not only a good friend but also a superb ER doctor, and who among other things helped to confirm that Skillings’s injection of ketamine would not have hurt Elizabeth’s baby. For information on the increasing number of cases of hypospadias, I turned to Howard Snyder III, M.D., professor of urology in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who sent me many disturbing pictures of this growing phenomenon. I thank Betty Mekdeci of the National Birth Defects Registry for her advice and incredibly devoted work in protecting children and recording their suffering. She argued for a less hopeful ending to Elizabeth’s story.
I especially want to thank Gordon Wheeler, Nancy Lunney-Wheeler, and the Esalen Institute, for offering me refuge to write much of this book. Esalen has been a hothouse of personal and cultural transformation for almost half a century, and I was incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to draft much of the story in a room clinging to the Big Sur coast as whales migrated within sight.
I would like to thank my legion of family and friends who have read countless drafts and offered valuable guidance and support, including Karen Abrams, Mark Nicolson, Charlie Bloom, Lynn Franklin, Todd Siegal, Ana Munsell, Joshua Leavitt, John Robbins, Myra Goodman, and once again, Gordon.
One friend deserves particular acknowledgment. Heather Kuiper, DrPH, introduced me to the dangers of endocrine disruption and was there on a rainy day when the idea of the novel first arose and countless times thereafter. Old friends are invaluable. They are trea
sure chests of shared memories, but Heather is also that rarest of old friends: one whose friendship is not based on the past but on the future and the world we want to help create together.
A writer is always a student of the craft, and I want to thank my teachers Frank McCourt (for helping me to believe in myself as a writer), Jim Frey (for teaching me as we sailed in the Bay), Robert McKee (for flaying open the world of story), and Pilar Alessandra (for lending her story genius to this book and always knowing whether a character should go left instead of right). Thanks also to Janet Leimeister and the Capitola Book Café, and to all the brilliant booksellers whose devotion to books makes our business possible, and whose irreplaceable stores are the crossroads of our culture. I thank my film agent, Rich Green of Creative Artists Agency, for his belief in the cinematic potential of my novels.
Heide Lange is the ideal agent that every author dreams of having: a brilliant reader and adviser, a cherished friend and member of the family, and an infallible guide through the bewildering world of authorship. May every writer be blessed with such an agent. Heide’s colleagues, Alex Cannon and Jennifer Linnan, and her daughter, Jessie Chaffee, also gave excellent readings.
Emily Bestler is the kind of editor that many people believe no longer exists in the publishing world. I now know why she has published so many bestselling novels: her devotion to the perfection of a manuscript through numerous drafts, her incomparable instincts for story, character, and style, and her unwavering support at every step of the publishing process. I also want to thank Emily’s gifted colleagues, Judith Curr, Deb Darrock, Carolyn Reidy, Michael Selleck, Kathleen Schmidt, David Brown, Christine Duplessis, Laura Stern, Jeanne Lee, Stephen Breslin, and E. Beth Thomas. Laura, thank you for your own superb reading; Carolyn, for your confidence in me; and Judith, for your belief that “now was the time to write about our oceans.”
I would like to thank my agents and publishers around the world who have worked so hard to bring this novel to a worldwide readership. The issues that the book addresses are obviously ones that affect all of us and can only be solved by all of us.
I thank my colleagues at Idea Architects, Michelle Defields-Gambrel and Zoe Elkaim, for their outstanding work on this book, their editorial gifts, and their tireless commitment to making sure it is read as far and as wide as possible. It is a joy to collaborate with such skillful and vision-aligned colleagues in creating a wiser, healthier, and more just world. My researcher, Jay Dautcher, Ph.D., is not only a great anthropologist and researcher. He truly knows everything about everything, and those few things that he doesn’t already know, he can find out in a matter of minutes. Jay worked closely with me on this book and was an intellectual companion at every stage of the book’s development.
I thank my father, Richard Abrams, for his early and continual faith in the significance of this project and his lifelong belief in me. A father’s blessing is an invaluable gift. Speaking of blessings, I want to thank my children, Jesse, Kayla, and Eliana, who were constantly in my mind and heart as I wrote. It was really for them and all the other children who will inherit our small and precious planet that I stole so many hours from family life. As Kayla once wrote on a note that hangs above my desk, “His name is not Doug Abrams. His name is Dad.” And it will always be.
More than anything, this novel is about the preciousness of life and in particular about the everyday miracle of motherhood. There are two mothers that I most want to thank.
Patricia Abrams, my own mother, not only endured nine months of pregnancy with me but also has continued to help gestate all of my books through their many developmental stages. She even helped me to hear whether there was life in each and every word. Now, that is maternal devotion. I am fortunate that my mother is also a bril
liant editor and publishing professional. Thank you, Mom, for reading endless drafts, for offering your wise counsel, and for being the kind of guiding presence that made the entire process richer and more meaningful.
And at last there is, and thank the good universe, always is, my wife, Rachel. What an undeserved gift it is to bring life into the world with you. You are such an extraordinary mother and companion on the path of trying to raise a healthy and thriving family. Thank you for your endless emotional and literary support, your cherished honesty and insight into character, and all the innumerable joys of our pair-bonded life.
Table of Contents