whale of a time

how wonderful whales are
they have come a long way from being the great monsters of the sea, leviathans, bohemoths, and all those semi-biblical words for giant creatures (here be monsters)
early illustrations certains seem to conjure these names, though
i fell in love with whales again after seeing a book a friend had borrowed from the library
called simply whale it collected wonderful images and stories of these mammals. i bought this book and another in its series, tiger..
a mural by niels oeltjen (design files interview)
which makes me think of pirates

a rather wonderful scratchie whale card, "what lies beneath"

a mobile index of whales
including
right whale*
humpback whales
sperm whale
minke whale
killer whale
... & more whale species

*horrible to think this poor whale got its name because it was the "right" one to kill
off the coast of australia, we now watch rather than slaughter the southern right whale
awful that the best watching spots are close to the coastal slaughter ports - warrnambool, eden

a rather wonderful photo of a whale launching itself out of the water near logan's beach

bad ole days of whaling
which reminds me of matthew barney's drawing restraint 9 project, which he did in cohoots with his just as quirky other half, bjork
link to drawing restraint site
i watched a making-of doco about the project (a blog about the doco by
alison chernick here), but couldn't begin to describe what i made of the whole thing.
other than that, barney and bjork join a japanese whaling ship on one of its voyages. whale blubber (maybe? no petroleum jelly, apparently) is pumped into a backyard swimming pool-sized container, and a film is made where bjork is a sea-siren ... i think
...
the finished work was exhibited in japan, and the japanese public said it was remarkable how barney
"understood whaling and japanese attitudes to whaling". perhaps this was what
happened. i got quite confused.

apart from appearing on scientific japanese menus, and whalebone corsets, another esoteric whale bi-product is ambergris
which sounds mysterious and lovely but is actually tremendously smelly,
a government website says ambergris is a solid, waxy material produced in [1-5%] of ...sperm whales... Large pieces of ambergris seem to build up in the whale intestine over its life and is usually released when the whale dies. Initially it floats on the ocean's surface and is black and sticky. exposure to sun, air and salt water oxidizes it, and eventually it becomes grey and waxy, loseing its unpleasant odour... ambergris floats and is sometimes found on beaches and shorelines
during the days of whaling ambergris was one of the many products to be taken from sperm whales

i first heard of ambergris in a song by the died pretty of the same name - a girl wore ambergris perfume
it sounded exotic and heady
tinctures are still available,
and this site describes how a tincture can be made if you happens upon a flotsam of ambergris ...
similar to pumice, with an aroma like the sea and an overtone of animal scent
here is a classy headline from the underwater times, january 2006, Rare Bit of Whale Vomit May Net Aussie Family over $1 Million,
and a rather marvellous photo of loralee and her ambergris (love that it rhymes)






Addendum (10/10/2012)
saw this image today, and liked it, so i'm including it here