What one marine sci-artist is doing to inspire careers in science, technology, engineering, art, and maths
Full STEAM Ahead is a blog by SWMS‘ guest author Karen Romano Young
My baseball hat has an embroidered wave on the front. It sits atop a styrofoam wig form that doesn’t know what’s about to hit it. Any day now, it’s headed (ha) for a mesh laundry bag zip- tied to Alvin — and when it comes back, my hat will completely engulf it, not perch atop.
Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Alvin
The cap and wig form sit on the windowsill of a porthole opening out onto the Caribbean Sea. Aboard R/V Atlantis, we’re chugging along the north coast of Jamaica, on a three-day transit from San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Cayman Islands — drawing a line of wake between the deepest points of the Atlantic (the Puerto Rico Trench) and the Caribbean (the Mid-Cayman Trough).
Research Vessel Atlantis – Karen’s home in the Caribbean Sea
On board with me are 50-odd scientists; Alvin engineers, electricians, and pilots; and the Atlantis crew who run the ship and the operations that take us to the deep sea. Deeper, in fact, than ever before, for Alvin, which has just been certified to 6500 meters. Before, it could take humans up to 4500m deep — about 2/3 of the seafloor. With this brand-new certification, we’ve got access to 99 % of the seafloor. My expedition’s job is science verification: making sure that Alvin is able to gather the data — samples, photos, videos, and — so importantly, human observations — that science needs. So what am I doing here?
Telling the stories of Alvin and the people who work with this amazing submersible that has been the vehicle for so many discoveries. In words and pictures. Mostly comics.
I’m serious. I’m part of the team, and comics are part of the outreach, not only telling the plot of of our experiences here, but showcasing the characters involved, in hope of making the field more accessible.
For years, I’ve used my #AntarcticLog comic series to tell stories about scientific research. The biggest thing that I’ve learned during that time is the need in science for more viewpoints — not just the human-occupied vehicle viewpoints provided by Alvin, but the perspectives of people of every gender, background, ability, experience, and gift. There is room for all — and, especially in deep-sea science, so much to learn about our world and other ocean worlds in our solar system and beyond. And it’s evident that kids adore the ocean, its vehicles and its biodiversity. How do we get them from there to… here?
My answer — in progress, in proof of concept — is I Was A Kid. My new project has the goal of helping kids 8 to 18 see their way into science, technology, engineering, arts, and math fields like this one. Through sharing multimedia profiles of people already in those fields who represent a cross-section of skillsets, I Was A Kid routes the variety of pathways — bumps, obstructions, dead ends and all — that got them where they are, using comics, graphics, photos, and text.
Tricia Thibodeau of URI-GSO is our current vice president. She has shared with us why she enjoys being on the steering committee in this first elections spotlight. She also shares why you should join us!
We love how many perspectives our members can offer. We think that’s one of our strengths as a community that we offer t o marine science! Acknowledging and celebrating your individual experiences and identities is a really important way we can support you.
This is work we do year round, but in honor of Pride History Month we ‘sat down,’ from various corners of the planet, with Erin Jones (she/her). Erin is a PhD student of biological oceanography at GSO with Tatiana Rynearson. Below you will learn about her intersecting identities and the valuable science she is conducting!
Introduce Yourself!
I am a queer marine scientist in the 3rd year of my PhD at GSO in the Rynearson Lab studying the role of microzooplankton community structure and diversity in carbon export pathways.
Erin Jones, GSO URI (2019)
In particular, I am interested in how shifts in diversity of heterotrophic and mixotrophic protists influence grazing patterns through the water column. My research is part of the NASA EXPORTS project, for which I recently returned from a month-long cruise to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic Ocean aboard the RRS James Cook.
Erin hooking up the plumbing for microzooplankton grazing experiment incubations. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook.
EXPORTS, which stands for Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing, is a NASA-funded project that aims to develop a predictive understanding of the ocean’s carbon cycle.
How has your identity shaped your experience as a woman marine scientist?
Being a queer woman in marine science, I have thought a lot about how much representation matters to aspiring scientists. I wasn’t aware of any LGBTQ+ people growing up, let alone any in STEM.
(From left to right) Erin Jones, Mikayla Cote, Dr. Pierre Marrec, Victoria Fulfer; aboard the R/V Endeavor for the NES-LTER Project, Fall 2020.
Without seeing your identity reflected in others, you are left to forge your own path; sink or swim.
Erin aboard the R/V Endeavor for the NES-LTER Project, Fall 2020
Being queer has shaped how I approach and participate in the marine science community, such as who I talk to, how I act at conferences, and whether I am “out” on research cruises. Broadly speaking, like many others I’ve had to learn to navigate the cisgender heteronormative patriarchy that exists at the core of the scientific community.
Despite the challenges I have faced along the way, I wouldn’t change who I am or the job I have; I’m queer and I’m a marine scientist.
How have you overcome the challenges posed by being a member of the LGBTQ+ community?
Challenges posed by being queer have been variable, but over time I’ve built up a network of allies, LGBTQ+ friends and colleagues, discovered more resources for being a queer woman in STEM (500 Queer Scientists), and continued to educate myself so that I can be a better mentor to other aspiring queer scientists and make it easier for them to find their way into the scientific community (Safe Zone Trainings).
(From left to right) Rynearson lab-mates Dr. Laura Holland, Diana Fontaine, and Erin Jones playing a game of Euchre during the EXPORTS cruise. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook.
Though the world continues to become more accepting of LGBTQ+ people, there is work to be done to make STEM more welcoming and supportive of queer identities. LGBTQ+ representation in schools, labs and at conferences has been vital for my development as a marine scientist.
I hope my queer visibility in the marine science shows other budding LGTBQ+ scientists that they are not alone, and they can be as much a part of the scientific community as anyone else.
Erin Jones (left) and Diana Fontaine (right) on the bow of the RRS James Cook as the ship returns to port in Southampton, UK. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook.
How have your support community and professional community overlapped?
Since joining GSO, my support community and professional community have overlapped substantially. My queer identity was not as visible in the past when I attempted to keep my queerness out of the lab.
Having an openly lesbian advisor has changed how I participate in the scientific community. By breaking out of the workplace “closet” I have become a better scientist, more engaged with my community and built stronger connections and supportive relationships with my lab and fellow students.
Rynearson/Menden-Deuer Grazing Team (From left to right) Dr. Laura Holland, Dr. Heather McNair, Erin Jones, and Diana Fontaine collecting samples from microzooplankton grazing experiments. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook.
What else would you like people to know about you?!
I hail from Bainbridge Island, Washington, where I grew up surrounded by the marine environment of the Puget Sound. Unsurprisingly, this is where my curiosity for marine life kindled.
I attended Mount Holyoke College, a historically women’s college in western Massachusetts where I studied biology and marine science. At Mount Holyoke, I flourished as a queer woman in STEM, surrounded by a fiercely supportive community of students and professors.
Aside from marine science, I love spending my time cooking, biking, throwing pottery, and gardening.
Top Left: The crew and science party of the RRS James Cook celebrate Erin’s birthday during the EXPORTS cruise. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. Top Right: Erin Jones and Diana Fontaine on the RRS James Cook watching the sunrise over the North Atlantic ocean during EXPORTS. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. Bottom Left: Erin Jones on deck of RRS James Cook waiting for sunrise. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. Bottom Middle: Erin Jones pictured with her girlfriend Lindsey after cooking Thanksgiving dinner 2020. Bottom Right: Erin Jones admiring the Kinney Azalea Gardens, Kingston, RI in Spring 2020.
If you are a woman in marine science and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, we’d love to hear from you! Please join us on social media June 24th 2021 as we celebrate LGBTQ+ pride and share your voice! Or pitch us a blog like Erin’s – you can find details here.
Introducing Ireland SWMS! Our branch was born from a need to connect marine scientists in The Republic of Ireland, of all levels and backgrounds and create a progressive space to discuss important issues. As an island nation, we rely heavily on the marine industries. By creating an engaged networking community, we hope to support the marine science industry and bolster the success of female scientists. Though we’re starting small, with the help of all SWMS supporters, we expect to grow and connect scientists across the nation. Here are our co-founders sharing their unique experiences in the field.
Introducing Niamh: My name is Niamh Meyler, co-founder of the Irish chapter of SWMS.
Growing up near the Irish Sea, I had a love of the beach and of nature. When I was introduced by chance to the field of marine zoology, I knew I had found my dream career path that combined my passion and curiosity for animals, the ocean and discovery.
With Zoology as my chosen field of study, I enrolled in the National University of Ireland where I got my bachelor’s degree and solidified my interest in cnidarian ecology. After graduation, I worked as a Groundfish Observer where I trained at the NOAA/NMFS facility in Seattle and was assigned to different boats in Alaska to collect catch data.I continued my studies and I am currently doing an MSc. Marine Biology with Stockholm University with a focus on tropical coral disease epidemiology.
Introducing Aisha: Hello! My name is Aisha O’Connor, co-founder of the Irish chapter of SWMS.
It was during my transition year in secondary school when I first realised my passion for marine science. A late comer compared to some, but having not grown up by the sea and with nobody else in my family with a strong interest in the marine realm, it took the discovery of the Galapagos Islands through a geography project to ignite the marine fire inside of me.
From there, I went on to complete a BSc in Marine Science at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) where I met Niamh, and continued my journey of discoveries when I was introduced to the wonderful world of seaweeds! And so flourished my passion for all things macroalgal-related. Since then I’ve had a bursary in the Aquaculture sector of the Marine Institute, Galway, worked as a research assistant in Alabama, US and Germany. Recently, I graduated with a MSc in Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I feel connected to the marine environment by more than an academic thread, I love to swim and snorkel in the sea and even SCUBA dive! Peering directly into a marine ecosystem keeps my passion burning.
Throughout my studies to date, I did not experience much encouragement to pursue a career in marine science. Simultaneously, resources detailing the opportunities and possibilities that would open up with a degree in Marine Science were few and far between. That being said, Niamh and I are striving to change the narrative through our innovative work with Ireland SWMS.
Our goals: We hope that Ireland SWMS will be successful in our pursuit to promote the visibility of women in marine science and help people connect with the experience of minorities in the field. Ireland SWMS dedicates itself to
provide support to young marine scientists in pursuing a marine career/studies and for networking
provide resources to find marine-related internships and jobs in Ireland
share knowledge from previous experiences in academia/industry/volunteering positions/etc.
We hope those who share the goals of this open and inclusive society feel empowered to join us. Together we can act to make the marine sector in Ireland a diverse and dynamic community to be part of.
We’re super excited to announce our progress on becoming a non-profit! First of all, we want to reiterate our deepest gratitude to all the folks who donated to our fundraiser, whether it was $2 or $200. Our base of members, family, and friends have made this transition possible. Of course, we have to note that if you’d like to support us further, you can send us funds via PayPal (not yet tax-deductible).
Since June 2019, we’ve been working with a lawyer to draft by-laws and make some decisions about the structure of SWMS, Inc. We’re ready to file the paperwork, and we’ll officially be a non-profit organization very soon!
Our Steering Committee will still be making decisions about the day-to-day management of SWMS. In the coming years, at least 4 of the Steering Committee positions will be Officers elected by a general vote of members: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. You can read more about the current structure of our Steering Committee here, and recent Pod Posts introducing many of us!
Introducing our Board of Directors
A wonderful bonus of being a non-profit corporation is that we will have input and oversight from a Board of Directors. We’ve identified the first SWMS Board of Directors! The Board of Directors currently consists of four longtime SWMS supporters who bring a wealth of expertise and passion to SWMS, and the SWMS President. This group will meet one to two times per year to discuss the mission and funding for SWMS. As these initial Directors end their terms in the coming years, new Directors will be elected by a general vote of members.
Without further ado, we are so excited to announce our inaugural Board of Directors (in alphabetical order by last name):
Dr. Bethanie Edwards (UC Berkeley)
Dr. Yuki Honjo (McLane Research Labs, Inc.)
Dr. Rick Murray (WHOI)
Dr. Heidi Sosik (WHOI)
This group spans a range of career stages, but they’ve all been instrumental in supporting SWMS. The board also has a broad range of expertise, including academic research, business development, public and private funding of science, and best practices for broadening participation in science.
We’re so excited to see where the next couple of years take us!
Greetings from the University of Rhode Island! We’ve had an exciting year here in the Ocean State. After electing three new chairs in December (and getting lots of help from the previous chairs!), we had a spring semester packed with great events. We thought it would be fun to share them with all of you! Hearing about the different activities happening in SWMS chapters around the country (and around the world!) is one of our favorite things about behind a part of this community.
None of our events would have been possible without all of our wonderful members! We also had help and support from other groups at URI, such as the Marine Biology Department, the URI Marine Science Society, the Graduate Student Association, and the Graduate School of Oceanography, for which we are eternally grateful. Here’s a brief recap of our events:
– Beyond the Reef Post-Grad Panel: stories and discussions about life after undergrad, from people who’ve been there and survived (and snacks, of course)
– Undergraduate Opportunities Panel: great ideas from professors, alumni, and current students on how to get involved in research as an undergrad
– Just Keep Swimming Mental Health Day: awesome crafting and talking about stress management with Dr. Penny Rosenthal of the URI Women’s Center
– URI SMILE: local elementary school students got to visit campus and do hands-on activities about marine science
– URI Welcome Days: we got to tell prospective students all about SWMS!
– Racing Extinction Screening: the URI Marine Science Society showed this fascinating documentary, and afterward hosted a discussion with experts in the field
As we move into summer, we have more ideas on the horizon. We’re already thinking about hosting some informal networking and community building events, and we want to highlight all the cool summer research, jobs, and internships that our members are doing. In the fall, we’re hoping to host an informative panel aimed at graduate students, and maybe bring back Just Keep Swimming Day. We’re setting our sights on hosting a SWMS Symposium at URI in Spring 2020, so stay tuned!
Huge thank you to all of URI SWMS for their hard work, enthusiasm, and for just plain showing up. We couldn’t do anything without all of you!
Congratulations to all graduating seniors, and happy summer, everyone!
The Brazilian chapter came out of our numerous conversations about science and its challenges. Since our first years of undergrad in Oceanography at the Center of Marine Studies (CEM) at the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil, we worked in research laboratories and dreamed about being scientists. However, we knew that it wouldn’t be an easy task. Science and technology are not generally valued in Brazil, much less marine science. The pressure to develop creative, innovative and reliable research considering financial instability and uncertainties have been present throughout our academic life.
Center of Marine Studies (CEM) – Federal University of Paraná, Brazil
Currently, most of us are working toward an academic career. Some of us are masters students and others pursue a PhD. We have noticed that the same challenges we used to discuss during our first year in college are still present. When one of us discovered SWMS, we saw it as an opportunity to help us improve marine science visibility in Brazil. Our aim is to highlight the high quality research produced by Brazilian women in science and technology. We also strive to share experiences and difficulties in academic life, promote inclusion, and strengthen ties between society and marine science. We shared our idea with two professors from CEM and one from the Federal University of Santa Catarina who helped us to create the SWMS Brazil Chapter.
In contrast to other chapters which fall under one university, we choose to be a national chapter. Although we are now separated into three different universities and states, we never stopped having those conversations about science, and we support one another whenever we face similar problems. Now we are able to maintain our dialogue and finally spread our ideas. As this is a national chapter, we hope to integrate more voices and gather a representative group of women in marine sciences throughout Brazil to inspire young students to become scientists.
Portuguese
A SWMS Brasil nasceu em uma de nossas inúmeras conversas sobre ciência e seus desafios. Desde nossos primeiros anos de graduação em Oceanografia no Centro de Estudos do Mar (CEM), Universidade Federal do Paraná, sempre estivemos inseridas em laboratórios de pesquisa e já sonhávamos em ser cientistas. No entanto, sabíamos que não seria uma tarefa fácil. No Brasil, a ciência e o desenvolvimento tecnológico são pouco valorizados e as ciências marinhas sofrem muito com a falta de investimento. A pressão para desenvolver pesquisa científicos inovadoras e relevantes, a instabilidade financeira e as incertezas sobre o futuro sempre estiveram presentes em nossa vida acadêmica.
Atualmente a maioria de nós continua na carreira acadêmica, algumas estão no mestrado, outras são recém mestres e buscam um doutorado, e notamos que os desafios que discutíamos nos nossos primeiros anos de graduação ainda são os mesmos. Quando uma de nós descobriu a SWMS, vimos uma oportunidade que poderia nos ajudar a melhorar a visibilidade da ciência marinha no Brasil. Nosso objetivo é evidenciar a pesquisa de alta qualidade produzida por brasileiras, compartilhar experiências e dificuldades da vida acadêmica, promover a inclusão e fortalecer os laços entre a sociedade e as ciências marinhas. Essa ideia foi compartilhada com duas professoras do Centro de Estudos do Mar da Universidade Federal do Paraná e uma professora da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina que nos incentivaram e nos ajudaram a criar o SWMS Brasil.
Diferente dos outros capítulos que levam o nome de apenas uma universidade, escolhemos ser um capítulo nacional, pois aquelas amigas que um dia estudaram juntas agora estão separados em três universidades e estados diferentes, mas não poderiam deixar de discutir sobre ciência e apoiar umas às outras. A ciência sempre foi o nosso assunto favorito e a distância foi uma das razões que nos motivou a criar o SWMS Brasil. Agora somos capazes de manter nosso diálogo e finalmente espalhar nossas ideias. Como este é um capítulo nacional, esperamos integrar mais vozes e reunir um grupo representativo de mulheres nas ciências marinhas de todo o Brasil e inspirar jovens estudantes a se tornarem cientistas.
I really wanted to read this book because, as someone staring down my last year before defending my thesis, burnout is a very real risk in my life. Like many other graduate students and academics, I struggle with anxiety and depression. While these issues are partly determined by my genetic makeup and my life experiences thus far, they also ebb and flow with the tides of immediate external stressors in my life (#sorrynotsorry for the ocean imagery). I was hoping that Burnout would give me strategies to decrease my anxiety and be less susceptible to burnout, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Burnout is absolutely fantastic. It reads similarly to Come as You Are, with an abundance of pop culture references and tl;dr (internet speak for “too long; didn’t read”) lists at the ends of chapters to highlight the main points. It also employs a fantastic device that Emily Nagoski debuted in Come as You Are: stories from real women combined into composite characters that help the reader to connect emotionally with the science. These passages show us how the series of stressors we experience can combine to create a life that leads to burnout, and how the strategies in the book might actually be implemented, speed bumps and all. These composite characters are presented as friends of Emily and Amelia, and the narrative passages about them are complete with dialogue, jokes, and the very real way that friends tease one another. In a book about complex neuroscience, this composite character device goes a long way towards making the book easy to digest.
The series of stressors we experience can combine to create a life that leads to burnout
The book also contains plenty of worksheets to help you implement the strategies of the book in your own life. The first helps you decide if you should quit something (their examples include a job, a relationship, a diet, and substance use), there is another for identifying what is within your own control in your life, and the final one encourages you to take stock of how you spend your time—in order to find the time to get sufficient rest.
I have to admit that I didn’t take the time to stop and write out my answers to all these worksheets, but there was one activity that grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. In the chapter on “Meaning,” the Nagoski twins ask the reader to remember times in their life that they have faced hardships, and identify the inner characteristics and the external support systems that allowed them to overcome those hardships. They ask us, as readers, to tell ourselves our origin story, and to frame the narrative around our strength and resilience. In my own life, I’ve faced a number of upheavals in my living situation and my close relationships. In nearly all of these periods, I’ve turned to reading. This prompt to write my story to myself inspired me to journal about how important reading has been to me throughout my life. It was an emotional and cathartic experience.
The authors’ approach to reframing failure is an extremely useful tool for early career scientists. They introduce the concept of a “little monitor” in our brain that has expectations about how long something should take or how rapidly we should move towards a goal. This brain system keeps us chomping at the bit to reach our goals, but can also derail us into a bottomless pit of frustration and despair when our progress isn’t fast enough. Their approach to overcoming this is to deal with the uncontrollable things in your life with “positive reappraisal.” They explain that “Positive reappraisal…means deciding that the effort, the discomfort, the frustration, the unanticipated obstacles, and even the repeated failure have value—not because they are steps toward a worthwhile goal, but because you reframe difficulties as opportunities for growth and learning.” So when you don’t get the fellowship/grant/job, or all your experimental creatures die, or your paper needs major revisions, you can see those challenges as roadblocks, or you can see them as difficult circumstances that simultaneously provide opportunities for deeper learning. To revise an old adage, many things worth doing are really, really hard.
Many things worth doing are really, really hard.
I was excited to read this book and wanted to write a book review of it for the SWMS blog, but somehow along the way, reading the book and writing the review became one more thing on my extremely long to-do list. As the seasons started to turn in Massachusetts in late March, my stress about the passage of time and how much I was getting done for my science was ticking up. My mental health was declining, so I wondered how I could even be qualified to write this book review. Well, lucky for me, I caught a nasty spring cold and was bedridden for two days. This little local maximum of burnout helped me to see the places I needed to scale back, or to simply give myself permission not to be perfect.
I stayed in bed for two days with that cold. During the first, I slept a lot and took a lot of cold medicine. During the second day, I worked from home and napped—I was completely amazed that I could get just as much done while sick as I would on a normal day at the office. And then I realized that I hadn’t gone to any meetings, and I hadn’t spent hours on email, and I felt somehow both productive and rested. Since then, I’ve struggled to find ways to preserve my energy, but I’m starting to see how important it is to take care of myself so that I can stay in this game for a long time. And now I’ve got a trusty guidebook that I can turn to for advice.
What better place to meet up with fellow scientists supporting women in marine science than at an international conference? This past winter, that very opportunity presented itself. Over 50 SWMS members attended a meet up at the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)’s biennial Aquatic Sciences Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Attendees presented their research through oral talks, poster sessions, and workshops, but we made time for networking and socializing, too!
We held a SWMS meeting during the conference to bring current and new members together. It started off with an introduction to the organization’s inception in 2014 at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from two of its founding members, Dr. Sophie Chu and Dr. Bethanie Edwards. Alexa Sterling, who started the first SWMS chapter at the University of Rhode Island, brought everyone up to speed on SWMS’s current goals and activities. Members discussed the diverse roles that SWMS plays in their communities and institutions. The organizers also solicited suggestions for directions in which to grow the SWMS network and to increase the impact of SWMS in the marine science field. Unlike chapter meetings and regional symposia, this international meeting allowed for cross-disciplinary discussion with members from all around the world.
One of our members shared her experience about the meeting, saying, “The SWMS meet up helped me realize the full potential of a female support network, and further encouraged me to become more involved with SWMS.”
Following the more formal meeting, some members continued their conversations at a nearby restaurant. They fueled their networking and discussions about their experiences in marine science with appetizers sponsored by the SWMS Steering Committee, including fried plantains. There were many new friendships formed, job opportunities shared, old friendships re-connected, and advice given across career levels. The SWMS member pool includes undergraduates, grad students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty members, as well as people working in industry, non-profit, and government positions. This variety of perspectives allows for valuable discussions about marine science.
Hannah Morrissette, one of the leaders of the Horn Point chapter, said, “I truly enjoy being the co-chair of the UMCES Horn Point Lab chapter… SWMS is an incredible organization that fosters a supportive and encouraging environment. This group of women will no doubt change the attitude and prevalence of female researchers.”
SWMS is an incredible organization that fosters a supportive and encouraging environment.
It was great seeing so many scientists at this SWMS meet up and hearing their stories, experiences, and ideas, as well as learning about current marine science research being pioneered by women. We look forward to future international conferences and SWMS meet ups! If you are interested in seeing a SWMS meet up at a conference you’re attending or if you are a SWMS member interested in facilitating a meet up, please email us at swms.general.contact@gmail.com.
The first time I saw a whale, it was a sunny summer day off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts — the whale spotting capital of New England. Rocking gently with the boat, my eyes glued to binoculars, it took a long minute before I was confident the spray I saw was, in fact, a whale’s spout. When a whale breached a few minutes later, the other tourists on the whale-watching tour buzzed with excitement, and the tour operators exuded a palpable relief.
The naturalist Leigh Calvez also saw her first humpback whale off the coast of Gloucester, and adroitly captures the admiration and curiosity these giants can provoke in her new book, The Breath of a Whale. Part scientific exploration and part emotional narrative, Calvez weaves scientific research with her own personal journey from her days as a naturalist and science writer.
The book focuses on six species of whales — humpback whales, blue whales, gray whales, beaked whales, false killer whales, and orcas. She explores the habits and history of each species, including their complicated relationship with humans. Gray whales, as Calvez explains, were completely eliminated from the east coast, and nearly exterminated in the Pacific. Although commercial killing of whales was officially halted by the majority of countries in 1982, the practice continues—Norway and Iceland continue to allow commercial whaling, and Japan catches whales under the guise of scientific whaling. Indigenous communities in four countries, including the United States, also still hunt whales to support their families. (This type of subsistence whaling maintains indigenous cultures but specifies a catch limit, updated every six years, by the International Whaling Commission.)
But if you want to read a hard-hitting book about past and current whaling, this isn’t it. Breath of a Whale barely skirts these topics. Instead, Calvez explores newer cetacean research and our evolving human connection with them. For example, she describes research on low-frequency active (LFA) sonar tests, which disturb wintering humpback whales off the coast of Hawaii. Calvez, then a young scientist monitoring whales, recalls noticing a distressed calf, separated from its mother by underwater noise pollution during military sonar tests. The mother-calf bond is critical, and Calvez observed a total disruption in normal behavior because of the sonar tests. She reported it, but her observations were dismissed. Her feeling of helplessness ultimately led her away from science. (Further studies since then have confirmed that the US Navy’s sonar can cause whale deaths, and otherwise disrupt whale behavior.)
Throughout the book, Calvez has keen descriptions of whales’ advanced social behavior. Free Willy-fame aside, the importance of the family pod in a whale’s life is difficult to overstate. Orcas in particular have strong familial ties, living in groups with their mothers and sisters. Orca social structures are complex, with some populations remaining in a small area—known as “residents”—and some migrating. This complicates research and conservation efforts. Off the coast of British Columbia in the Salish Sea, for instance, Calvez describes how the southern resident population is in decline, with no births for over three years, while the transient population has actually increased. That’s in part because the southern residents’ preferred food, Chinook salmon, has declined drastically. The human impacts, like industrial dumping, runoff, and leaching chemicals into the ocean, also contribute to the problem. (In fact, half of the world’s orcas could disappear because of pollution.)
Some of the most striking sections in the book stem from Calvez’ remarkable ability to humanize scientific research itself. Scientists attempting to study whales can spend days, months, and even years without catching a glimpse of their study species. Remarkably difficult to study, a single whale can travel thousands of miles a year, and spend a large portion of their time under water. As a researcher studying how seabirds find food, I can appreciate the huge challenges these whale researchers face. I can walk up to a nest, pick up a bird, and attach a GPS in less than 10 minutes. Whales surface to breathe for sometimes only seconds, so scientists have to be poised and ready to attach a GPS to a whale’s back with a giant suction cup at a moment’s notice. Calvez explains how new techniques—like using GPS satellite loggers—are now helping scientists better understand whale movements, and recording the incredibly deep depths of their dives.
Though she does a good job explaining the nuts and bolts of cetacean research, equally interesting are the scenes where Calvez shows the connection between whale and human emotions. Just like elephants suffer from PTSD, Calvez argues that whales also experience distress and depression after traumatic events. Since gray whales can live as long as 70 years, she muses that gray whale calves born during the 1960s—when over 300 gray whales were killed off California—could still be alive and swimming with the trauma of those hunts. (Researchers now believe that Tilikum, the infamous Sea World orca that killed his trainer, exhibited symptoms of PTSD.)
JORGE VASCONEZ
Calvez, in fact, twines her own life story around that of Springer, an orphaned orca calf who appeared in the Puget Sound in early 2002. Springer became separated from her pod after her mother died in late 2001. (NOAA orchestrated an attempt to reunite the struggling calf with her family in summer 2002—a complicated operation that was ultimately a success.) Like Springer’s community came together to care for this orphan, Calvez chronicles how her own community cared for her when she fell into a coma on the very same day that an oil spill poisoned the Puget Sound in 2004.
Breath of a Whaleisn’t trying to be comprehensive—and I found myself wanting more information, not only on the whale species she introduces, but also on the ones she doesn’t. Right whales, for example, a species of the North Atlantic that produced no offspring in 2017, didn’t even get a mention. As a scientist, the human tendency to anthropomorphize animals is discouraged, and Calvez’ passion for whales sometimes distracts from the important science she recounts. Trained to ask questions, I double-checked Calvez’s sources as I read the book—but the facts she divulges and the scientific papers she summarizes are all accurate, leaving me eager to learn more.
Even for a skeptic like me, the book’s main success is connecting Calvez’ audience to a magnificent creature that so many of us rarely, if ever, see.
