Jan
30

Sidedoor: 50 Shades of Gray (Whales)

Graphic for Sidedoor 3.5

From 6,000-year-old cave paintings to Moby Dick to Free Willy, whales have long captured the human imagination. Among the largest, most powerful and most intelligent creatures to ever live on our planet, whales have inspired both fear and awe for millennia. On this episode  of Sidedoor, we’ll explore our surprising relationship with whales through the lens of one species: the gray whale. Once aggressively hunted and thought to be nearly extinct, they’ve rebounded to become one of the North Pacific’s most abundant whale species. How did it happen? Did we change or did they?

Related posts:

Graphic for Sidedoor episode King of the HerbsThe King of the Herbs The Conversation: Conservation policies threaten indigenous reindeer herders in Mongolia Detail of brick with "brick" written on itOur Smithsonian: Backyard archaeology Artifacts arranged on black clothICYMI: Highlights from the week that was July 16 – July 22, 2017

Posted: 30 January 2019
About the Author:

The Torch relies on contributions from the entire Smithsonian community.