Birthdays are better with books! (part 6)

As a young girl, my dad took me on several trips to SeaWorld. I was young enough (then) not to have ethical qualms about captive orcas or performing seals - and my favorite part of the trip (after the gift shop) was the tidal pools where I could dip my hands into the water and stroke the surprisingly silky bodies of rays and the pebbly limbs of starfish. I don't know what it is about animals that makes us want to touch them so much, but I've never forgotten my small moments of communion with these gentle sea denizens! The books below mark still more birthday gifts -- and my older and wiser explorations of life under the sea!

Discussing the effects of a submarine detection system on whales (it causes them to beach themselves) this book caught my eye when it made headlines for combining environmentalism and legal theory and again when it won the PEN/E.O. Wilson award.

Examining the taken-for-granted relationship of whales and trainers at the heart of the theme park's popularity, this book asks whether human beings should ever be in the water with a top ocean predator and examines the sometimes fatal consequences of capturing whales. Since orcas form complex societies and tight bonds, it's difficult to see how anyone ever sanctioned removing members from their pods and trying to supplement those bonds with one other animal (maybe) and a human trainer.

My bookshelf isn't lacking for shark titles. (I unwisely read Jaws, Demon Fish, Devil's Teeth, and Closer to Shore during a beach vacation one year.) I added this one not for the sinuous, threatening forms of the sharks on the cover, but because it also discusses skates and rays - creatures which fascinate me but which do not seem to have a general natural history title dedicated to them. My husband's travels have taught me this about skates: since they secrete waste through their skin, they taste like ammonia. I'm glad that he is so well-traveled and brave about these things! It lets me armchair travel and read about the depths instead of daring them!