by Susan Casey
First published 2015
A chance encounter with spinner dolphins while swimming near Maui transforms Casey into an unlikely investigator. She traces the complex bonds between humans and these marine mammals across two years of travel. Her journey takes her from Hawaiian spiritual communities who worship dolphins to Irish coastlines where a single dolphin has charmed visitors for decades. She interviews leading marine scientists whose research reveals new depths of dolphin intelligence. Casey also exposes the brutal reality behind dolphin entertainment. Her investigation leads to the Solomon Islands' violent capture operations and the infamous annual hunts in Taiji, Japan, where The Cove was filmed. The book moves between wonder and horror as Casey documents both our fascination with dolphins and our exploitation of them. She concludes on Crete, studying ancient Minoan art that depicts a civilization that lived peacefully alongside these creatures, offering hope for better relationships between humans and the ocean's most charismatic inhabitants.
Genres: biography, science, nature, animals, environment, non-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, nature-writing
Setting: Crete, Hawaii, Ireland, Japan, Maui, Solomon Islands
Period: 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: animal-death, graphic-violence