On the Trail of the Whale

Zoologist Mark Carwardine spent an adventurous year criss-crossing the globe, from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific, in search of whales. He watched them from kayaks, fishing boats, a helicopter, research vessels, a custom-built catamaran and even, on the southernmost tip of Africa, from the comfort of his hotel bed. He fulfilled every whale watcher's dream. He swam with pilot whales in the Canary Islands, listened to singing humpbacks in Hawaii and joined an ex-whaler to look for Bryde's whales in Japan. He got soaking wet with a minke whale in Scotland, followed a family of killer whales hunting salmon in Canada and camped within sight and sound of grey whales along the wild Pacific coast of Mexico. He was threatened with a sub-machine gun, chased by a seal, made friends with a wild bottlenose dolphin, bumped into a surprisingly friendly poisonous snake and, in New Zealand, even had a young sperm whale named after him.