Publisher Description
Two men face off against an all-powerful navy—and the fate
of the ocean’s most majestic creatures hangs in the balance.
War of the Whales is the gripping tale of a crusading attorney who
stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine detection
system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound—and drives
whales onto beaches. As Joel Reynolds launches a legal fight to expose and
challenge the Navy program, marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious
mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas.
Investigating this calamity, Balcomb is forced to choose between his conscience
and an oath of secrecy he swore to the Navy in his youth.
When Balcomb and Reynolds team up to expose the truth behind
an epidemic of mass strandings, the stage is set for an epic battle that pits
admirals against activists, rogue submarines against weaponized dolphins, and
national security against the need to safeguard the ocean environment. Waged in
secret military labs and the nation’s highest court, War of the Whales is a real-life thriller that combines the best of
legal drama, natural history, and military intrigue.
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War of the Whales is an important book about a major post-Cold War problem: the often conflicting goals of national security and environmental protection. The author presents this very complex and multidimensional story with great clarity. I’m certain that no one who has been involved with this issue will agree with everything in this book (I don’t). But the topic is, by its nature, so emotionally charged and controversial that I doubt anyone can read it without a strong personal response. The importance of this book is that it tells the “inside” story to the wide reading public in a compelling way.
—
Rear Admiral Richard F. Pittenger (Ret.), Director of Antisubmarine Warfare for the Chief of Naval Operations, 1986-88; Oceanographer of the Navy, 1989-1990
