Bøger af Alexandra Morton

NATIONAL BESTSELLERAlexandra Morton has been called "the Jane Goodall of Canada" because of her passionate thirty-year fight to save British Columbia's wild salmon. Her account of that fight is both inspiring in its own right and a roadmap of resistance.Alexandra Morton came north from California in the early 1980s, following her first love-the northern resident orca. Then, in 1989, industrial aquaculture moved into the region, chasing the whales away. Soon Alex had shifted her scientific focus to documenting the infectious diseases and parasites that pour from the ocean farm pens of Atlantic salmon into the migration routes of wild Pacific salmon, and then to proving their disastrous impact on wild salmon and the entire ecosystem of the coast. Alex stood against the farms, first representing her community, then alone, and at last as part of an uprising in which ancient Indigenous governance resisted a province and a country that wouldn't obey their own court rulings. She has used her science, many acts of protest and the legal system in her unrelenting efforts to save wild salmon and ultimately the whales-a story that reveals her own perseverance and bravery, but also shines a bright light on the ways other humans doggedly resist the truth. Here, she brilliantly calls those humans to account for the sake of us all.

In Listening to Whales, Alexandra Morton shares spellbinding stories about her career in whale and dolphin research and what she has learned from and about these magnificent mammals. In the late 1970s, while working at Marineland in California, Alexandra pioneered the recording of orca sounds by dropping a hydrophone into the tank of two killer whales. She recorded the varied language of mating, childbirth, and even grief after the birth of a stillborn calf. At the same time she made the startling observation that the whales were inventing wonderful synchronized movements, a behavior that was soon recognized as a defining characteristic of orca society. In 1984, Alexandra moved to a remote bay in British Columbia to continue her research with wild orcas. Her recordings of the whales have led her to a deeper understanding of the mystery of whale echolocation, the vocal communication that enables the mammals to find their way in the dark sea. A fascinating study of the profound communion between humans and whales, this book will open your eyes anew to the wonders of the natural world.

"A lot of people think they own the things on this planet, but they are wrong, because we are just visiting for a short time and then we are gone ... Everything was here before we came here, and I hope that everything will be here after we are gone.” -Billy ProctorAlong British Columbia's remote central coast lives Billy Proctor, a fierce mainlander who has spent his entire life on the water. He became a commercial fisher-man at age seven, selling his daily catch to his mother, a respected fishmonger. As his operation grew, so did his respect and understanding for the fish-how, when, and where to catch the thriving runs of Pacific salmon, oolichan, and herring. Eventually Billy came to realize that his beloved fish were vanishing-some to near extinction-and he understood that it was time to take action.Originally published in 1998 and now a Canadian bestseller, Billy's stories convey his profound respect and admiration for the lands and waters that he has spent his lifetime working on and fighting for."Stories are what you need to hear-stories about people who have spent a lifetime living and working with nature. We owe a debt of thanks to Alexandra Morton, who vividly introduces us to this man, Billy Proctor. He has much to tell us with his life and words.” -Robert Bateman

Through a selection of her stunning photographs, Alexandra Morton portrays life on the central British Columbia coast.She arrived in the area in 1984 as a whale researcher, and at first, she was absorbed in studying the orca and admiring the magnificent scenery. It is a coast with a long history: dolphins have pulsed in and out for 10,000 years; First Nations people have lived here for almost as long; European settlers arrived a scant century ago. As time passed, Morton began to observe the lives of other creatures that share the sea and land--humpback whales, bears, salmon, eagles, deer, and humans--and understand how they are all interconnected. As one example, "Bears drag salmon beneath the trees of the forest, feeding the giant plants that shade the river nursery, protect its banks and allow it to make more fish." In Beyond the Whales, Alexandra explains what is going on beyond the beauty of the images: "One of the joys of watching a place for 20 years is being able to read the signs upon the sea--bubbles on the surface mean tons of herring below; three birds over an orca mean the whale has brought fish to the surface; shearwaters in Blackfish Sound mean autumn is here. The ocean feeds the rivers and the rivers feed the ocean."