From front cover:
...This is the real story behind the remarkable, bizarre and often times
uproarious event
that for a fortnight mesmerized an anxious world.
On October 7, 1988, an Eskimo hunter found three California Gray whales
imprisoned in
the Arctic ice. In the past as was nature's way, trapped whales always
died.
But this time incredible things began to happen:
Yet, through the miracle of modern technology, the rescue of three
whales caught in the
Arctic ice captured the imaginations of hundreds of millions of people
who for a brief
moment in time felt that the world had become a better place for
ourselves and the
creatures who share it with us.
page 73
page 74
page 80
page 81
page 87 & 88
...Plowden knew the International Whaling Commission's rules on the
subsistence hunt
allowed the Eskimos to kill any whales they could catch even though they
usually ate just
bowhead. He was afraid the Eskimos might claim the whales before anyone
tried to rescue
them. He urgently wanted Cindy to find out if the Eskimos had any plans
to kill the
whales to fill their quota.
In his long fight against it, Plowden learned as much as any white man
about Eskimos
subsistence hunting and he didn't like what he knew. The ardent whale
advocate did not
think the Eskimos were subsistence hunters at all. Missile launchers,
time-released bombs
and outboard motors did not bear even a remote resemblance to
traditional whaling.
While Plowden couldn't understand how Barrow with its $80 million high
school and
$300 million water system could call itself a subsistence village,
Barrowans couldn't
understand how a K Street liberal 7,000 miles away in Washington, D.C.,
could pass
judgment on how they lived their lives....
page 92
...Only a few weeks earlier, the Governor was roundly criticized for
moving too slowly to
rescue seven North Slope Eskimo walrus hunters trapped on a huge piece
of ice that broke
away from the shore and drifted out to sea. Ramser thought if the
Governor suddenly led a
rescue effort on behalf of three animals after doing so little to save
the lives of seven
native Alaskans from Kotzebue, it would smack of anti-Eskimo racism. It
would be an act
of political suicide.
Cindy became enraged when Ramser asked why she was so concerned about
the fate of
animals that weren't even endangered. Suffering is suffering, Cindy
insisted...
page 101
page 134
page 149
Brower did not understand. Did she want to be his friend or not? He
didn't know why
Cindy declined his hospitality. Was she recoiling under the touch of a
blood-stained whale
killer or was their another, less offensive reason?
Realizing her actions were being viewed as an affront, she profusely
thanked Brower for
his concern but told him she couldn't wear fur.
"Why not?" Arnold asked. "Are you allergic?"
"No, no," Cindy said, laughing. "I just don't wear animal fur."
Brower never would understand these crazy whites from the Outside. He
told her the ruff
was hers when and if she changed her mind...
page 156 and 157
The colonel told the president about the bitter cold, but spared him the
details of his problems with the barge. Carroll recited the names of everybody involved
and their organizations, just as he had rehearsed with Bonnie.
Bonnie, listening in on a White House speaker phone, howled with
laughter when
the President deftly cut short the nervous, rambling colonel.
page 170
Plowden suggested Cindy get in touch with a person who had been calling
the Greenpeace
office for days with an unusual offer of help. He was a man named Jim
Nollman and he
called himself an "inter-species communicator." Nollman said he could
coax the whales
out of the original holes by playing back recordings of other whales
with special
underwater sound equipment.
Cindy had heard plenty about Jim Nollman and not much of it was good,
but she figured
she didn't have a choice. As far as she knew, Nollman was the only
person in North
America who had sound equipment capable of functioning in the Arctic.
She accepted his
offer of help and asked him to come to Barrow, promising to pay his
expenses....
page 171 & 172
"Here, dip it in some Eskimo butter," said the Inupiat worker who handed
her a piece of
frozen fish on a toothpick. She quickly plunked the fish into the yellow
odorless liquid
and popped into her mouth.
The instant her taste buds registered the unusually pungent flavor, she
gagged and
wretched uncontrollably. Cindy's unprepared palate was in violent
revolt. When she
regained control, she lamely looked up at the concerned workers and
asked exactly what it
was that stopped just short of making her vomit.
That was all the explanation Cindy needed. She shuddered in disgust and
walked back out
into the cold....
page 179 & 180
"I hate to be a wet blanket," Caras said from the comfort of the ABC
Manhattan studio,
..." they are exhausted, they are stressed and they've got a gamut to
run. There will be
polar bears on the lookout for any animal that's stressed or weak.
Southeast Alaska, then
British Columbia has many pods of killer whales, and the way these
whales will be
pumping with their flukes, will be very slow and will be detected as
vibrations in the
water by the killer whales who will close in. Then along the coast of
Oregon, they'll pick
up the white shark. Then, if they have any energy left at all after
running this gamut of
teeth, they've got to move all the way down to central Mexico. All
without eating.
"I don't think they will ever get to Mexico. They'll be lost from sight
once they've
cleared the ice and no one will ever know what happened to them. As much
as I hate to
say it, I don't think they are going to get there."...
page 193 & 194
Of course, ARCO's work on behalf of the three whales stranded in Barrow
did nothing to
clean up its share of the more than 11,000 acres of North Slope Arctic
tundra the
Environmental Protection Agency said were ruined by oil drilling. Nor
did it change the
industry's stance on exploratory drilling along the sensitive Arctic
coastline....
page 215
page 216
....When Comrade Chilingarov arrived at work the following morning,
Tuesday, October
18, Moscow time, the message from his old Greenpeace friend, David
McTaggert, was
waiting on his desk.
"Greenpeace urgently request your assistance to help rescue three
California gray whales
trapped in ice holes less than a mile off shore from Point Barrow,
Alaska," the message
began....
page 217
Even with the International Whaling Commission's 1986 moratorium on
commercial
whaling, the Soviet Union was still by far the world's single largest
killer of gray whales.
At the very moment that Chilingarov got the request to help save the
three grays stranded
in Barrow, whalers on board rusty old Soviet whaling vessels were
scrubbing their
bloodstained decks after another productive season plying the waters of
the Chukchi Sea
hunting gray whales. The hunt was supposed to be limited to subsistence
purposes only,
but Glasnost had unshackled the Soviet media enough for it to report
that most gray whale
meat was fed to minks raised on Siberian farms...
page 221 & 222
By Wednesday, October 19, West German activists seized on the publicity
surrounding the
three stranded whales and hoped to use it to widen a six month boycott
against German
companies that bought Icelandic fish. With news of the Barrow whale
stranding, the
boycott took off. Looking for a local angel to a remote story, German
media started
covering the previously obscure Iceland fish boycott....
page 245
page 246
Morris' account was accepted with blind faith. Reporters in Barrow were
so far removed
from the story in Washington, we really had no choice. Ironically, when
Cindy publicly
objected to being totally left out of the official version, several
reporters roundly criticized
her for trying to "steal" the credit....
page 306
...Among the potential victims were the very whales Alaskan oil titans
ARCO and VECO
expended themselves to save....
page 307
...While Iceland, killers of 75 whales in 1988, fell prey to a crippling
economic boycott
costing more than $50 million, nearly four percent of the tiny nation's
gross national
product, the Soviets, who slaughtered more than twice as many gray
whales that same
year, sent two icebreakers on a three-day diversion. The Soviets reaped
praise, Iceland
scorn. While serenading Moscow with cheers of "Hail the Whale Savers,"
the world
taunted Reykjavik with jeers of "Boycott the Whale Killers."....
Extracts page 66
...NBC's exclusive footage of the trapped whales the night before was
immediately
recognized as an industry "mini-coup." Network news producers loved
animal stories.
They gave the network anchors a chance to display, in the spirit of the
'88 campaign, that
they too were "kinder and gentler." But for a reason as obvious as it
was elusive, whale
stories were the best of all. Without even knowing it, Tom Brokaw
impacted the psyches
of even his most cynical viewers with his rueful smile at the end of
Thursday's broadcast.
The struggling whales couldn't help but touch the human heart....
...I sat next to a striking Eskimo woman with jet black hair and deepset
dark brown eyes
sitting atop prominent cheekbones. She was Brenda Itta, an Eskimo leader
returning home
after participating in an Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN)
conference....
...Brenda Itta's unknown world and its fascinating people were of no
interest to any
correspondent. None of us came to Barrow to report on the extraordinary
plight of the
embattled Eskimo or the Arctic's hostile beauty. We came to tell the
world about a
common occurrence, the routine stranding of three whales under a patch
of ice. The only
thing that made this stranding extraordinary was that it happened just
20 miles from a
satellite uplink earth station. Had the facility been located far away,
these whales, like
dozen of others each year, would have died ordinary deaths...
...Cindy Lowry was the Alaska field coordinator for Greenpeace, the most
prominent
environmentalist organization....
...It was a label she detested and emphatically denied, but Cindy Lowry
was a YUPPIE.
She wore subtle perfume with her finely pressed, conservation business
suits, drank
expensive coffees, drove a Volvo and had a great big dog named after the
tallest mountain
in North America, Denali...
...the phone rang again. It was Campbell Plowden, from Greenpeace's
Washington office.
He coordinated all the organization's whale activities. While he did not
see the NBC
report himself, he heard about it and wanted to know if Cindy thought
Greenpeace could
play a role...
...She called back the Governor's office. She told Dave Ramser that an
oil company was
willing to donate the use of its icebreaking hoverbarge to cut a path
for the trapped
Barrow whales. All they needed was authority to borrow two Skycrane
helicopters from
the National Guard or the Air Force...
...At the time of the whale stranding, it looked like the oil industry
had gained the critical
upper hand in the decade-long battle to open the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR). Ben Odom, Bill Allen and the United States government knew that
positive
coverage of oil companies working to rescue the whales might push them
over the top.
Good public relations could sway the few fence-sitting senators whose
votes they needed
to start drilling...
...Despite his widespread popularity, a vast majority of Americans still
felt Reagan was a
poor steward of the environment. George Bush, his heir apparent, all but
acknowledged
that shortcoming when he pledged to be "the Environmental President." If
President
Reagan intervened on behalf of three trapped whales in the waning days
of his
administration, maybe he could begin to heal one of the wounds that
threatened to scar his
otherwise glittering presidency...
...Seeing that she was on the verge of frostbite, he grabbed the fur
ruff dangling unused
around his neck and leaned over to wrap it around her brightly reddened
cheeks. When
she saw the fur, Cindy instinctively backed away.
..."This is White House Signal. Please hold for the President."
A few moments later, at 3:03 PM Washington time, an unmistakable voice
came on the
line.
"Colonel Carroll?"
For a brief second, the colonel froze. His heart stopped beating and his
mouth turned cotton dry. Could it really be the Commander-in-Chief, the President of
the United States,Ronald Reagan, that just asked for him by name?
"Yes, sir," said the colonel, now sitting ramrod straight in his
chair.
"This is Ronald Reagan."
"It's a pleasure, sir."
"Well, I'm just calling to tell you how much I'm impressed by all
that you are
doing up there in this effort on the whales and to get an on-site report
on the rescue
effort."
"Very good, sir," the colonel responded. "There are a tremendous
amount of people
up here who appreciate the fact that you've taken time from your
schedule to call."
The President politely asked Carroll to dispense with the
obsequious supplications and get to the whales.
"Sir," the colonel continued, unmoved by the President's appeal for
brevity. "I
think this phone call will make a substantial difference in the morale
of everyone
involved. From the crews out there right now with the barge to the
people working in
Barrow. This is the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile."
"Well," came the President's trademark utterance. "You can tell
them all we're
very proud of you and what you've done up there. And I'll let you get
back to your rescue
mission now. But just know that a great many people are praying for all
of you."
Before he hung up, the President wished the colonel good luck.
But even Ronald Reagan's legendary luck wouldn't be enough to get
the mired
hoverbarge across 270 miles of frozen Arctic Ocean to Barrow....
...Greenpeace had to hire eight temporary employees at the height of the
Barrow rescue
just to answer telephone calls from thousands of people around the
world.
...Before heading back to the ice, they asked Cindy if she wanted
something to eat. In
addition to whale meat, the shack was stocked with walrus, seal, even
some polar bear
meat. When she said she didn't eat meat, they offered her raw fish
instead. After having
stood out in the freezing cold all morning, she was so hungry that even
that sounded
tempting. As long as it wasn't meat, Cindy would gladly eat it.
"Probably the butter," came one guess.
"What's wrong with butter?" Cindy asked to a chorus of laughs.
"You see," said one Eskimo, "it's not really butter."
"Well then, what the hell is it?" Cindy asked impatiently.
"It's seal oil," the man answered quietly. "We call it Eskimo
butter."
...ABC News correspondent, naturalist, and resident whale expert Roger
Caras guaranteed
Ted Koppel and his millions of viewers that the whales would never
survive their ordeal.
...The $500,000 ARCO spent on Operation Breakout was one of the best
investments it
ever made. A $20 million public relations campaign couldn't have bought
a tenth the
goodwill ARCO earned helping free the three trapped whales. It seemed to
be perfect
timing. ARCO cashed in at a critical juncture in the history of the
slumping Alaskan oil
industry. No oil company in Alaska ever received more favorable press
coverage than
ARCO did during its two week investment in Operation Breakout. Usually
the rich
whipping boy of the environmentalists, ARCO now worked side by side with
Cindy
Lowry and Greenpeace. In the game of P.R. Pac-Man, ARCO swallowed any
hint of
criticism by pouring tremendous resources into a rescue destined to save
three animals
endangered by nature, not man's insatiable carving for fossil fuels.
...Plowden woke up at 3:00 AM that day to call David McTaggert, the
director of
Greenpeace International who was in Rome. McTaggert was sick in bed but
his assistant,
Bryan Fitzgerald, listened as Plowden explained the problem. Plowden
wanted McTaggert
to persuade his contacts in the Soviet Academy of Sciences to send an
icebreaker.
Fitzgerald promised to convey Plowden's request to his bedridden
director...
....McTaggert agreed to send a telegram to the appropriate Soviet
authority, Arthur
Chilingarov at the State Committee for Hydro-meterology and Control of
the Natural
Environment....
....As news of the whales spilled over into Europe, Chilingarov could
hardly contain his
glee. After suffering decades of the Western world's disdain for its
persistent and brutal
whaling practices, the Soviet Union was at the receiving end of a golden
public relations
windfall.
...After clearing it with his superiors, Plowden sent a cable to
Greenpeace's European
offices telling them that the best way they could help save the three
Barrow whales was to
remind their members that the real threat facing whales were not Arctic
ice floes, but
rusting whaling vessels loaded with rocket propelled harpoons. It wasn't
nature that
threatened whales. It was man.
....Now that the Soviets were on the way, the U.S. Government began a
frantic attempt to
disengage itself. The further the government could extricate itself when
the Soviet ships
arrived, the less damage to American prestige if the Soviets managed to
steal the show.
Gorbachev had stung the State Department too many times in the past.
They weren't about
to take any chances over three lousy whales....
.... Morris carefully positioned himself atop a mound of ice silhouetted
against the bleak
horizon to read his proclamation. He told the shivering but intent group
of two dozen
reporters what the Commerce and State Departments told him to say.
Namely that it was
they who worked to get the Soviet icebreaker, not Cindy Lowry, Campbell
Plowden, or
Greenpeace.
....Just six months after glowing from their greatest public high, the
oil industry was
reeling from its deepest low. The goodwill they worked so hard to
generate in October
drowned in 11 million gallons of solidifying oil that oozed its way down
Alaska's violated
coast...
....Greenpeace whale coordinator Campbell Plowden waited nine months for
his reward.
On August 2, 1989, the Republic of Iceland announced a two-year
moratorium on all
commercial whaling. The crisis that brought Prime Minister Strintrimur
Hermannsson's
government to its knees half a year earlier finally became too much.
Iceland could no
longer fight the economic clout of an increasingly united world. Iceland
had no choice but
to get out of its $7 million whaling business....