War of the Whales: A True Story by Joshua Horwitz, Paperback

Bookpage.com

Author Joshua Horwitz structures this account like an eco-legal thriller, layering his research so that film of a Navy ship seen in the water near the site of the beachings hangs there like damning evidence…. As humans encroach ever further into wild spaces, the impact on the creatures living there must be minimized or mitigated. War of the Whales tells one story among many of its type, but it speaks to the need for improved stewardship with urgency.

Washington Post

As War of the Whales…makes convincingly clear, the connection between naval sonar and deadly mass strandings of whales is scientifically undeniable…a strong and valuable narrative.

Publishers Weekly

04/21/2014
In March of 2000, on Abaco Island in the Bahamas, a group of volunteers surrounded Ken Balcomb and his wife and research partner, Diane Claridge, eager to learn more about the Cuvier’s and Blainville’s beaked whales of the Great Bahama Canyon. Panic ensued as one of Balcomb’s assistants delivered news of a stranded whale nearby. Although the volunteers were able to free this whale and push it back to deeper water, they learned of numerous strandings on several islands, and the mystery, along with Balcomb’s quest to solve it, began. In this gripping detective tale, science writer Horwitz recreates a day-by-day account of the quest to find the reasons for the mass strandings; their discovery of the probable cause—the U.S. Navy’s use of high-intensity active sonar; the Navy’s resistance and cover-up of their use of sonar in the area; and the drawn-out struggles between Balcomb, Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defence Council, and the Navy. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that public interest lay in “securing the strongest military defense rather than in enforcing marine mammal protection,” yet five years later continued research further solidified the position of various parties within the environmental movement that noise pollution poses grave threats to whales. Horwitz’s riveting story illuminates the many challenges continuing to face environmentalists working with marine mammals. (July)

feature on PEN Award win Huffington Post

Confirms the consensus of so many readers and critics that War of the Whales is an exceptional achievement in non-fiction story-telling.

Puget Sound Blog

What really gained my admiration for Horwitz was how he was able to weave scientific and historical aspects of the story into a gripping tale that reads like a detective thriller.

Animals24-7.org

War of the Whales is as gripping as any spy novel, but from the perspective of having reported at the time about the central events and conflicts that Horwitz covers, being acquainted with most of Horwitz’s cast of characters, and even having been on the original cc. list for some of the e-mails he quotes, I can attest first hand to the accuracy and insightfulness of his writing.

A Green Beauty

"WAR OF THE WHALES is riveting, wide-ranging, and a masterly account of this landmark showdown in courtrooms and the court of public opinion."

TheEffortlessChic.com

War of the Whales is well researched and provides deep insight into the little known consequences of our government’s use of sonar technology — two reasons it’d make great fodder for conversation at a summer cocktail party. Just don’t be surprised if you take up the mantle of environmental activist after plowing through it.

Queen Anne & Magnolia News

Fascinating… Horwitz does a superb job… This is narrative journalism at its finest and one of the best nonfiction books of the year.

Daily Herald

Pitch-perfect prose and compelling detail…Horwitz’s fine text is filled with multi-dimensional characters and frenetic action. It has deservedly been designated one of the best books of the year so far.

Barnstable Patriot

An astounding and brave expose of how it has penetrated our oceans and how destructive that involvement is to cetaceans…Horwitz moves us profoundly…This is an essential read for those interested in the ocean environment and in how the world really works.

CultofMac.com

Fans of the Blackfish documentary will enjoy Joshua Horwitz's incredible new book…the effort to reveal the truth sets up an epic battle that spills over the pages of War of the Whales, combining legal drama, natural history, and military intrigue into an surprising tale of the battle for the ocean's future.

SpiritualityandPractice.com

Brilliant…[Horwitz] astonishes us with the breadth and depth of his coverage of why whales are dying as a result of sonar systems in the oceans, the legal battle between environmental groups and the U.S. Navy, and the pain and suffering resulting from the "unintended consequences ‘of keeping the United States safe.

Outblush.com

Joshua Horwitz's strongly-written book about a secret Navy program that targeted whales will pull at your heartstrings harder than anything you've experienced since Free Willy 3.

OceanWildThings.com

A must read!

Wyatt’s World LibraryJournal.com

Immersive reading.

Lansing City Pulse

The opening scenario of this fascinating story is shocking and heartbreaking…well-researched and passionate.

Fiction Reboot

War of the Whales has all the elements of a good beach-read thriller: compelling characters, a tight mystery, even a cute animal: in this case, beaked whales. However, Horwitz is talking real life…If you are looking for [an] edutaining beach reading this summer, War of the Whales would be a good choice.

The Dodo.com

A game changing book that unveils, layer by layer, the blood-stained legacy of Navy sonar on whales and dolphins.

PruTexas.com

The gripping tale of two men’s crusade to protect the earth’s oceans and the majestic creatures that call it home will appeal to the activist hidden within every reader…The story is as intriguing as it is informative as Horowitz weaves together legal drama, natural history and military intrigue.

Santa Barbara Independent

A page-turning ride…Horwitz tells a taut, energetic story that feels immediate, even though the events are nearly a decade old. War of the Whales is a reminder — and a warning — that our technological, industrial, and military prowess produces unintended consequences for other species with which we share this fragile planet.

The Washingtonian

Amazing…Forget toting the latest spy novel or horror story to the beach this summer; take War of the Whales instead. You don't need to be an eco-warrior to learn from this real-life thriller.

Switchboard (Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog) - Joel Reynolds

A true story brilliantly told…The book is compelling, it’s comprehensive, it’s ground-breaking – and it’s infuriating.

Switchboard (Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog) - Michael Jasney

Suspenseful and moving and fascinating in equal measure…Stranding investigations are about cause and effect. But in showing us, based on the best available evidence, what the Navy’s sonar transit might have been like for the whales that suffered through it, the book reminds us of the dignity of the individual animal.

Bookpage

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The story is so artfully constructed that you are drawn in and forget that you are not reading a novel…. [A] story that is fascinating even if you have no interest in whales or navy sonar…. [H]is masterfully crafted book is guaranteed to bring the issues to a larger audience.

Journal of the San Juan Islands

A gripping, true-life tale… War of the Whales blends together the spirit of both a suspense thriller of a Grisham novel (except that it's not fiction) and the political intrigue of an All The President's Men.

Tim Zimmerman

War of the Whales is the surprising and untold story of how two individuals united in a desperate fight to protect dolphins and whales from the deadly acoustic assault of navy sonar. Deeply researched, and brimming with colorful and interesting detail, Joshua Horwitz's gripping book reads like a thriller but, in the tradition of the best non-fiction writing, brings to light the secret history of military sonar and its devastating connection to traumatized whales and dolphins stranding and dying on beaches around the world.

Robert F. Kennedy

Seneca said it best: 'He who is brave is free.' War of the Whales tells the astounding true story of how brave men and women, free from fear, spoke truth to the most powerful military on earth to save the most majestic creatures in the oceans.

Jean-Michel Cousteau

War of the Whales takes us deep inside the soundscape of our acoustically complex seas, where whales have evolved to communicate, navigate and hunt with sound. It's the true story of the underwater collision between life in the ocean and an acoustic storm of military sonar — and of citizen activists holding accountable the world's most powerful Navy. For anyone who wants to save marine life from drowning in man-made noise, this is a must-read book.

All Animals (Humane Society Magazine)

[A] compelling account of what happens when animal and human interests collide—and a sobering look at the suffering caused by increasingly noisy oceans.

The Journal of Supreme Court History

"As riveting and as involved as a good novel with a lengthy cast of characters.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Horwitz skillfully builds the narrative around the lives of Balcomb and Joel Reynolds…wisely relat[ing] the messiness of their lives as well as their professional accomplishments. Just as wisely, Horwitz does not reduce the Navy characters to villainy….War of the Whales offers a vivid portrait of unexpected intersections between humans and marine mammals. I, for one, will never again think about whales and marine mammal researchers and Navy maneuvers in the ways I did before reading Horwitz’s book.

San Francisco Chronicle

Intriguing…offers excellent capsule descriptions of various scientific specialties, and scientists.

Seattle Times

Highly detailed…Suits, appeals and maneuvering all the way to the Supreme Court expose a fascinating but sometimes demoralizing conflict, since the book depicts yet another example of the executive branch of government operating as though it were above the law. That Horwitz persevered and made this important battle public is admirable.

David Helvarg

From severed whale heads to top-secret Naval warfare ops, from the blue waters of the Bahamas to the inner corridors of the Pentagon, War of the Whales is a true-life detective story, military drama and legal procedural of the first order. Joshua Horwitz channels John Grisham and Jacques Cousteau in a way that will leave the reader inspired, outraged and deeply satisfied.

Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly

Engaging… War of the Whales reads like a novel, but the story it tells is true…a fascinating personal tale.

CBS Watch! Magazine

For those looking for the perfect non-fiction beach read, you couldn’t do better than War of the Whales: A True Story, Joshua Horwitz’s recounting of an attorney and marine biologist who take on the Navy and the fatal harm they are causing the ocean’s mammals.

Huffington Post - Brenda Peterson

In a riveting and groundbreaking new book, War of the Whales, Joshua Horwitz, chronicles the true story of the 20-year battle led by scientists and environmental activists against military sonar. It reads like the best investigative journalism, with cinematic scenes of strandings and dramatic David-and-Goliath courtroom dramas as activists diligently hold the Navy accountable. A page-turning detective story, War of the Whales... chillingly tracks the US Navy’s culture of secrecy as it collides with environmental groups and grassroots’ demand for transparency.

Navy Proceedings Magazine - HOWARD ERNST

A fascinating read and incredibly informative. This is a powerful book and will be of great interest to anyone concerned with marine mammal protection, the uneasy balance between the competing desires for national security and environmental protection, or the messy politics of scientific inquiry.

Chicago Tribune

Intimate and urgent storytelling....Horwitz's years of research and observation lend genuine drama to this save-the-whales tale. The author paints rich portraits of his subjects, much fuller than the rote physical descriptions and caricatures that might pass for characterization in a breezier work of nonfiction.

50 Notable Books 2014 Washington Post

As War of the Whales…makes convincingly clear, the connection between naval sonar and deadly mass strandings of whales is scientifically undeniable…a strong and valuable narrative.

Bob Woodward

A gripping, brilliantly told tale of the secret and deadly struggle between American national security and the kings of the oceans. At once thrilling and heartbreaking, this is a landmark book of deep, original reporting which could alter forever how we view our role as stewards of the seas.

Seattle PI

This masterfully crafted book is guaranteed to bring the issues to a larger audience.

Rear Admiral Richard F. Pittenger (Ret.)

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.

Geraldine Brooks

A page-turning plunge into deep seas and deep secrets. A finely braided, tautly constructed narrative full of science, suspense and unexpected reversals. This is an awe-inspiring book, and an enraging one. You won't be able to put it down.

Blog.JaclynDay.com

Impeccably researched.

AskMen.com

Gripping.

Penthouse

[A] real-life thriller.

Robert Kurson

A stunning true story that delivers us into beautiful and mysterious depths – of great oceans, top-secret military operations, and the hearts of underdogs who risk it all to save the most extraordinary creatures in the world. In War of the Whales, Joshua Horwitz has written a tale of passion and courage with all the intrigue of the best mystery novels.

All Animals

[A] compelling account of what happens when animal and human interests collide—and a sobering look at the suffering caused by increasingly noisy oceans.

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2014-05-17
Living Planet Books co-founder Horwitz chronicles an ongoing collision of epic proportions between the U.S. Navy, intent on protecting its submarine warfare program, and environmental activists, who fight to save whales from extinction.The author begins in March 2000, when, over several days, “the largest multispecies whale stranding ever recorded” occurred across 150 miles of beach in the Bahamas. Rescue efforts led by Ken Balcomb, a researcher who was conducting a census of whales in the area, were mostly unsuccessful, but he was able to preserve their bodies for later forensic examination. Having served as a naval sonar expert, Balcomb surmised that training exercises involving a top-secret “Sound Surveillance System,” developed during the Cold War to monitor Soviet nuclear submarines, were likely responsible. The use of high-decibel, low-frequency sonar signals by the Navy would have overwhelmed the whales' biosonar system and caused physiological damage as well. This was not the first such incident of whale strandings in the vicinity of naval exercises—nor, unfortunately, the last. The author reports on the battle led by Balcomb and Joel Reynolds—a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council—to force the release of the forensic evidence and the attempts by the Navy’s top brass to stonewall any serious investigation that could lead to curtailment of their activities.The battle led to a court ruling against the Navy for overriding environmental law. The Bush administration overturned the court decision by executive order on grounds of national security, and the NRDC countered legally, asking for a ruling on the administration's action. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the administration was within its rights, but it opened the door for the requirement of “comprehensive Environmental Impact Statements” in advance of any future naval maneuvers.Based on years of interviews and research, Horwitz delivers a powerful, engrossing narrative that raises serious questions about the unchecked use of secrecy by the military to advance its institutional power.

War of the Whales: A True Story

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