Reference
The Real Whales
The series is fiction. These animals are not. Straightforward guides to how orcas, humpbacks and sperm whales actually live — and to what industrial whaling did, what still threatens them, and what can be done about it.
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Orcas
Orcinus orca
The largest dolphin on Earth, living in families that never break apart.
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Humpback Whales
Megaptera novaeangliae
Singers, cooperative hunters, and the closest thing conservation has to a success story.
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Sperm Whales
Physeter macrocephalus
The largest toothed predator that has ever lived, and the animal industrial whaling was built on.
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Whaling & Conservation
Close to three million whales were killed in the twentieth century alone. A ban has been in place since 1986 and three countries still hunt commercially. Here's what happened, what threatens whales now, and what actually helps.
Looking for how the research shaped the story? Behind the Book connects it to the series.
More from the water
Ocean research and new-release news, sent occasionally.