Peter Knudtson

The powers and beauty and mystery of the orca seem never to lose their appeal. This book is an appreciation of the orca´s gift to humankind, and Peter Knudtson´s appraisal of that gift is among the best that I´ve seen.
Many people seem to wish to believe that whales are communicating with us at the deepest levels. But since the dawn of human history we have always greeted whales not by communicating with them but by killing them.
The killer whale is not an unreconstructed murderer; neither is it a jolly circus clown, to be made to jump hoops for our entertainment. The real orca lies somewhere between these two extremes; or maybe we will find that it is beyond the scope of our understanding.