A Presentation of Whales

*The above is a photograph of beachcombers climbing on a wood and aluminum sculpture of a beached whale. This is located on a beach in The Netherlands.

After reading Lopez's essay, A Presentation of Whales, I find myself wondering what kind of person would stop what they are doing and drive to the beach to see this very real and saddening presentation of beached whales. One man even drove five or six hours just to see the spectacle unfolding on the Oregon coast.

On an evening in June of 1979, forty-one beached sperm whales turned up on the sand on the central Oregon coast. These whales are 40-60 feet long and 35-45 tons. There was no way that humans would be able to save these whales. Yet, some believed that they could save them and came to the scene with blankets to soak up the ocean water and place over the whales. Some tied ropes around a whale, attempting, with the strength of forty, to pull the whale back into the ocean. They failed themselves and the whale, injuring the whale further with the cuts into its flesh from the rope.

Scientists rushed to the scene to begin work on obtaining samples of whale blood, teeth, flesh, and organs. A whale was cut open with chainsaws as a dying, but not yet dead whale pounded the beach with its fluke. Michael Gannon, director of a group called Oregonians Cooperating to Protect Whales said, "The effect of all this was that it interfered with the spiritual and emotional ability of people to deal with the phenomenon. It was like being at a funeral where you were not allowed to mourn." (127) I understand this statement and agree with it, although, I am unsure why you would attend a funeral, or even more, the actual death and passing of a being whom you never knew, never met, and never loved. Death is such a beautiful and private experience and I am struggling to understand whether this was an act of love and respect or if it was something insensitive and disrespectful.

Although I would never want to show up as a bystander to this sort of event, I can imagine that many showed up with hopes that they could help the whales and upon realizing they couldn't, just stayed to watch the whales dying, not being able to remove themselves from the scene. I believe that many people observing felt a sense of compassion towards these whales, although I cannot understand the many bystanders who were entertained by the events unfolding and showed no respect for the end of 41 lives that was taking place.
I am unsure about my feelings towards the scientists position. I understand the great opportunity that this event presented for research. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine the scene as it unfolded and how chainsaws and attempts at euthanization fit in with this profound moment of the death of 41 whales. Bob Warren, a patrolman for the U.S. Forest Service said, "I had no conception of what a whale beaching would be like. I was apprehensive about all the tourists and the law-enforcement atmosphere. When I drove up, the whole thing hit me in the stomach: I saw these numbers, these damn orange numbers - 41, 40, 39 - spray-painted on these dying animals." (128) Two thousand on-lookers showed up to watch. And there was nothing they could do but watch and this is what they were there precisely to do. "[Warren] recalls his rage watching people poke at a sensitive area under the whales' eyes to make them react, and calmly directing people to step back, to let the animals die in peace." (129)

Marine biologist, Michael Graybill was at the scene and "regarded efforts to save the whales as unnatural interference in their death. Later, he cynically observed "how much 'science' took place at the heads of sperm whales" where people were removing teeth; and he complained that if they really cared about the worldwide fate of whales, Greenpeace volunteers would have stayed to help scientists with postmortems. (Some did. Others left because they could not stand to watch the animals die.)"(134) Greenpeace was involved in the attempt at saving a whale by pulling it back into the ocean with ropes. Even if Greenpeace had succeeded at placing a whale back into the ocean, I believe they would have failed. So much damage had already been done that the whale most likely was not suitable to live anywhere, even in its home, the ocean.

Michael Piper, of Greenpeace "was so disturbed, so emabarrassed by the drunks and by people wrangling to get up on the whales or in front of photographers, that he left." (126) I just cannot believe that 41 animals deaths is a source of entertainment. This is completely absurd to me. This has reminded me of my thoughts about Timothy Treadwell. To many, his life was a joke. After he died, people saw Grizzly Man and made jokes about Treadwell and casually said, "he deserved what he got." When I was looking for an image of Treadwell for my blog, one of the first that came up was a Timothy Treadwell halloween costume - a person in a giant bear costume and themselves as Treadwell in the belly of the bear surrounded by blood and death. Clever idea, yes. But I just don't get the joke.

A scientist at the beach, Deborah Duffield said, "It hurt me more than watching human beings die. I couldn't cope with the pain, the futility...I just turned into myself. It brought out the scientist in me." (139) I imagine that it was more difficult to witness than a human dying because people respect the death of a human, but not that of an animal. The scientists on the beach were doing their jobs while trying to set aside the life outside of the whales, the riduculousness of the crowd, the insincerity and disrespect for life happening around them.

Piper of Greenpeace said of the event, "The best thing we could have done, was offer our presence, to be with them while they were alive, to show some compassion." (126) Compassion. As in, not getting a six pack and going to watch some whales die, not poking and prodding a dying creature, not turning their death into an event other then their own.
As I am looking at how we relate to animals, I am wondering how some were relating to the whales by doing this. Why did some feel the urge to show up and witness this event? After some outwardly displayed acts of disrespect, did they go home and feel something, anything for these animals? Will the event affect them years later? Or is it just something they did on their Saturday night?

It is difficult for me to understand this event, because I am unable to create a parallel event involving the death of humans. An event where 41 humans are dying in a span of hours and attempts at saving them cannot physically take place. Would we be poking and prodding their dying bodies? Would we show up drunk to witness the event? Would numbers be spray painted onto their dying bodies? Would complete strangers show up with their children to watch the people as they took their last breath? Would they want a photo souvenir of the event and ask someone to take their picture in front of the 41 dying people?
What is it about the death of animals that is so different from the death of a humans? Are their lives not as significant as our own?

I'll come back to this one...