Josse Ford :: Art Journeys and Conversation ::

Stranded whales - are they trying to tell us something? More than coincidence?

Mankind has long enjoyed a special relationship with whales. They are highly developed beings with very large & complex brains. It has been clearly shown scientifically that the whales have a brain proportionately larger than Humans & in some ways far more developed, that they have clearly identifiable, highly evolved emotions such as joy, compassion, humor & emotional self control, that they live in large complex social groups that live in great harmony.

Whales are often associated with dreams and people who have swum with the dolphins often describe the experience as if being in a dream. The ancient bond between dolphins and humans bridges two worlds - the worlds of sea and land. The strength of this interspecies relationship is so powerful that dolphins and humans have even risked their lives to help each other in real life as well as myth.

Indigenous peoples especially have long considered whales to be sacred.

SEVERAL hundred mourners turned up at a funeral for a whale in central Vietnam where the animal is revered and considered a creature of god. The corpse of the 5m whale was discovered off Dong Tri beach in Quang Nam province a day earlier, a police officer said. Villagers brought the two-tonne mammal ashore and buried it in a traditional ceremony symbolising their respect.

"Local people believe the whale is a sacred animal because every time they bury a dead whale, the weather changes and it rains," the police officer said. "We started worshipping 'Sir Fish' in the 1950s, when it saved and brought ashore a fisherman after his boat capsized in a storm," said Nguyen Minh Hung.

"Sir Fish always helps fishermen in danger and warns us about it. Every time we see him near our port, it means there will be a storm or big rains, so we stay home and don't go fishing."

In Australian there is a tribe of Aborigines known as "People of the Whale". The Mirning believe that at the beginning of time a great white whale spirit called Jiderra came down from the Milky Way with the seven sisters dancing on his back, to create the earth and sky. It is at this sacred place, now known as the Head of the Bight, that some of the Mirning have communed with the whales for over a hundred thousand years. It is said that there is a prophecy that states that the coming together of Whales and Humanity will signal a great change in the people…bringing them back into balance with nature and therefore with God.

Whalesong Dreaming by David Jimenz

According to the Maori people the White Whale is their guardian. What people are to the land, the whale is to the sea. When the first ancestors made the long journey from Hawaiiki to New Zealand, whales led the boat to New Zealand.

I think all of us have enjoyed the word-of-mouth success of "WhaleRider." The movie is based on the Ngati Parou myth of Paikea who believed that their ancestor came to New Zealand from Hawaiiki on the back of a whale. Whales are sacred to them and a memorable scene in the film is where the whole village is frantically trying to save a pod of stranded whales that have come to shore in response to a call for help from the young girl heroine. The elder of the tribe believes that this signals an apocalyptic end to his tribe.

If you were to ask the Maori elders, what would they have to say about all the whale strandings in the past year? More than coincidence? A warning?

"Whale Rider" (Niki Caro)

So what's up with all the whale strandings around the world in the past year? Are the whales trying to tell us something?

• Whales beach again in NZ after rescue attempt:On October 19th, 2002 19 pilot whales died on Friday on New Zealand's North Island having stranded themselves for the second time in two days, conservation workers said. The mammals were "very, very distressed," Department of Conservation spokesperson Wanda Vivequin told Reuters. "
• On December 29th twenty adult female sperm whales were found washed up on a remote Australian beach but wildlife officials yesterday were unable to explain the third such mass stranding in the same area in a month. Scientists said it was impossible to tell if the mass beaching was linked to a huge earthquake recorded between Tasmania and Antarctica last week.
• From November 28, 2004 to January 7, 2005, there have been recorded incidents of around 200 whale beachings on the coasts of the island of Tasmania, 240 km off the south-eastern coast of the Australian continent. This is an unprecedented number and has caused widespread concern.
• On November 30, 2004, Australian Senator and Green Party Leader, Bob Brown, made a statement saying that ocean seismic tests to search for gas and oil should be stopped until the whale migration season had ended. His call followed the deaths of 19 long-finned pilot whales which beached at Tasmania's Maria Island the previous day. Just 24 hours earlier, 73 long-finned pilot whales and 25 bottlenose dolphins had been beached and had died.
• Senator Brown said in both cases seismic tests, involving so-called sound bombing of ocean floors to test for oil and gas, were carried out in the days before the whales were stranded.

"There is growing evidence that such activities may impact on whales and dolphins, but research data is inconclusive," he said.

"However, the precautionary principle should apply and the tests, until shown to be safe, should stop - at least in whale migration seasons."

• At least 37 whales beached themselves and died along the North Carolina shore on January 16 and 16, earlier this month soon after Navy vessels on a deep-water training mission off the coast used powerful sonar as part of the exercise. Although the Navy says any connection between the strandings and its active sonar is "unlikely" -- because the underwater detection system was used more than 200 miles from where the whales beached themselves -- it is cooperating with other federal agencies probing a possible link. Government fisheries officials, as well as activists for whales, say the fact that three species of whales died in the incident suggests that sonar may have been the cause.

Some of the leading theories as to why whales beach themselves include failure of geomagnetic reckoning, following a sick leader, parasitic infection, seeking land in time of extreme stress, chasing prey aggressively, and gentle shelving beaches that disrupt sonar navigation.

While no-one can come up with a definitive answer there does seem to be solid evidence that some of our human activities are impacting upon the everyday world of whales and dolphins in negative ways. Sonar tests involved in testing for oil, navy ship exercises have been shown to impact the very developed hearing of whales.

According to Mark Kaufman of the Washington Post, July 14, 2004:

WASHINGTON — Residents of Hanalei Bay on Kaua'i woke up last weekend to a distressing sight: As many as 200 melon-headed whales, a small and sociable species that usually stays in deep waters, were swimming in a tight circle as close as 100 feet from the beach, showing clear signs of stress.

To keep the animals from beaching, residents kept a vigil all day and through the night, until a flotilla of kayaks and outrigger canoes could be assembled to herd the animals back out to sea. So far, only one young whale has been found dead.

But among increasingly worried whale advocates and researchers, the event set off immediate alarm bells: Melon-headed whales are not known to beach themselves, and nothing like this mass stranding close call has occurred in Hawai'i for 150 years.

Several hours after the Hanalei Bay episode began, it was learned that a six-ship Navy fleet 20 miles out to sea had begun a sonar exercise the morning that the melon-headed whales headed toward shore.

So if we enjoyed the film "Whale Rider", and we like the idea of "swimming with the dolphins" shouldn't we also be willing to look at our behavior and how it might be impacting on our neighbors in the ocean? I believe that we are all connected and if dolphins and whales cannot speak for themselves then who will speak for them?

The Art of Saving Whales by Wyland

And how's this for uncanny? Indian Professor predicts earthquake based on whale strandings

On December 4, three weeks before the earthquake off Indonesia, an Indian academic, Dr Arunachalam Kumar, professor of anatomy at Kasturba Medical College at Mangalore in Karnataka, posted a note about a recent whale-stranding in Tasmania, and its possible implications, on a "listserve", an e-mail distributor, hosted by Princeton University.

About 120 whales stranded and died in Australia at the end of November and 50 pilot whales died on a Coromandel beach at the same time.

"It is my observation, confirmed over the years, that mass suicides of whales and dolphins that occur sporadically all over the world, are in some way related to change and disturbances in the electromagnetic field co-ordinates and possible realignments of geotectonic plates thereof," he wrote. "Tracking the data and plotting the locales of tremors and earthquakes, I am reasonably certain that major earthquakes usually follow within a week or two of mass breaching of cetacians [sic]. I have noted with alarm, the last week report of such mass deaths of marine mammals in an Australian beachside. I will not be surprised if within a few days a massive quake hits some part of the globe. The interrelationship between the unusual 'death-wish' of pods of whales and its inevitable aftermath, the earthquake, may need a further impassioned and unbiased looking into."

FURTHER READING

• A Theory of Whale Stranding
• Robin Good has an indepth look at the connection between whale strandings and sonar testing for oil: Underwater Seismic Testing Linked to Whale Beachings
• Whale Stranding in N.C followed Navy Sonar Use

There are Two Kinds of People in this World - free men and slaves. Who are you?

I was reading more of my Robert Henri book that I mentioned in an earlier post. He was writing a letter to a teacher and his words really struck a chord in my heart. Many times in our lives we are tested as to the strength of our convictions. At the time it seems easier to take the path of the majority but each time we compromise a little part of our true self dies. Now, more than ever, is a time to stand up for what we believe in and the freedom that this country was founded on.

If I were you I would prefer a short and courageous career in art teaching to one that would be prolonged by hedgings. What does it matter if by standing for the thing you really believe in, fighting for it, giving to others the reasons you have used in your own conviction, making no weak concessions, you fail. Such failure is success. You keep your likeness, anyhow. Besides, you can depend on it, there are everywhere some people who will recognize your wisdom, truth and courage, and you will be well repaid by having won the appreciation of such people, even if you come back, as a result, out of a job and strapped. Many people would renounce what I have said as sentimental or even wild fanaticism.

But don’t be fooled. The diplomatic hedger is all about us. You and I have seen many of them grow up and develop their game. Some of them have bank accounts and are very respectable and safe citizens, but we are well aware of the price paid and know that it is far too dear. One has ideas, which it believes in fully, perhaps, but modifies to bring about “success.” The other class has ideas which it believes in and must carry out absolutely, success or no success.

The first class has a tremendous majority and they are all slaves. The second class are the only free people in the world. Some are kept under the grind of poverty. Some are sent to jail, but they are still the only free class. But the latter class does not always get down under the heel nor sent to jail.

People are not always fools. There are those who only want “to be shown”, ones who know, and there must be someone who has the courage to show them. These are the words of the old teacher before you again – get mad at me if you like – but it’s the same as I used to say when I was teacher and you were pupil, and it was such ideas, in which you then saught truth and value, that made you come to hear me. And it is because there are many people who are not fools and only want “to be shown”, but in spite of the convections of institutions, there has always been a place open for me, although there has never been a time that failure has not been predicted.

Zhao Ziyang dies: a man who stood up for freedom

Remember Tiananmen Square? In 1989 a pro democracy protest led by students ended in violence. At the time, Zhao Ziang was the communist party leader who gave up his privileges and his freedom to stand up for something he believed in - that governments should listen to their people.

The Economist tells the story of how he arrived a the protests at Tiananmen Square after meetings with and tearfully told them through a megaphone that he had come too late.

AT DAWN on May 19th 1989, when the pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square were at their height and looking like a serious threat to Chinese Communist Party rule, the party’s leader, Zhao Ziyang, suddenly appeared among the protesting students. Addressing them tearfully through a megaphone, he said he had come “too late”. He did not say what he meant but, in the coded language of Chinese political rhetoric, his message was abundantly clear. He had come too late to save the demonstrators—and he wanted them to leave the square before it was too late for them. The next day, martial law was declared in Beijing. Fifteen days later, with the protesters still ignoring Mr Zhao’s warning, soldiers from the People’s Army opened fire on them, killing hundreds.

After Zhao challenged paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's order to use force to clear the square, the party concluded that he had "committed the serious mistake of supporting the turmoil and splitting the party." He was dishonoured and kept under house arrest – never to be seen again in public.

Zhao was a true leader of honor, a champion of reform at a time of momentous change in China. He listened to the people and engaged with them in a discussion about their desire for democracy. His leadership won him the respect of the people of China and around the world. Had he not been deposed we might be seeing a very different China today.

Even the White House had high praise for Zhao. According to Newsday:

White House Mourns Death of China's Zha
The White House on Tuesday showered praise on ousted Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, calling the former Communist Party chief who died on Monday "a man of moral courage."

The effusive comments, unusual even for a White House well accustomed to issuing laudatory statements about those who have died, were in stark contrast to the treatment of Zhao's death by Chinese leaders, who appeared to have no plans to honor him in death.

They also were remarkable because the United States, aware of China's importance as a regional economic and military powerhouse and partner in stalled talks to end North Korea's nuclear program, often tries to avoid public rebukes of the government there.

FURTHER READING

• There's a thoughtful and heartfelt opinion piece from Rebecca at RConversation:

In the long run I do not think that Mr. Zhao will have suffered in vain. He stood for the belief that governments should listen to their people. He believed that his government would be strengthened, not weakened by doing so - although it would definitely be changed. Because he stood up, the Chinese government today is probably listening more (albeit quietly and gradually) than it might have otherwise. Ways are found to let people blow off steam locally, on specific issues, before problems come to a head. Police and surveillance are handily deployed too. The current leadership knows they cannot afford another confrontation like the one that happened in 1989. I think they will manage to avoid one. But gradually, slowly over time, I do think China's government will become more participatory. Maybe even participatory enough to be called democratic some day. For that we can thank Zhao Ziyang.

• along the journey has a good collection of links. Thanks Joann, for drawing my attention to this inspiring story :-)
• China Digital News has a huge collection of news reports about Zhao.