The gray whale is one of the most ancient and mysterious of all the great whales. Its 10,000-mile West Coast migration tells a story of many worlds, human and cetacean - a living interspecies history. For 50 million years, these gray elders of all the whales have evolved alongside our shores and we are linked to these mammal kin by more than a shared history. Anatomically, there is a human equivalent for every bone in the gray whale's body - from fragile vestigial limbs invisible in the gray's mighty tale flukes to the delicate finger and hand skeletons inside each pectoral fin. Like hidden, mirror images, humans and gray whales reflect a larger story than science alone can tell. While Sightings looks at the past and the present events surrounding the gray whale, including recent hunting agreements, the authors also keep an eye to the future. Following the gray whale's monumental journey along the West Coast from Baja to Bering Sea, they tell the story not only of the whale but also of the people, both tribal, scientific researchers, everyday natural explorers and fishermen, and those small coastal communities whose lives are graced with and focused on the gray whale migration.
Hogan's and Peterson's voices offer an insight into the current conflicts between Native peoples, businessmen, the tour industry, and environmentalists. The book includes the narrative retelling of dialogues with tribal leaders, hunters, scientists and communities, and the history of traditional whaling villages and what residents have observed in their many years of watching the gray whale. It will also describe the environment and lands along the migration - its sand, water, black rocks, the vegetation of the sea and other marine life - a story placed within the context of the whale's environment.