The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals

In late 2005, award-winning adventure writer Heller joined Paul Watson and his 44-person crew on their voyage to find and halt an illegal Japanese whaling fleet en route to the Antarctic sea. Watson, founder of Greenpeace in 1972, says he abruptly left in 1977 to start his current group, Sea Shepherd, because he wanted to take intervening action to enforce international laws; others say he was ""ejected for grabbing a sealer's club and throwing it in the water."" Either way, Watson is a controversial leader who compels ""people to drop everything-jobs, loves, homes-and follow him to the ends of the earth""; one of Watson's all-volunteer staff says, ""I don't want to die, of course... But if I die looking to save a whale, that would be OK."" Heller's writing is energetic and bold, at times a swashbuckling adventure, at others a portrait of a determined eco-warrior, at others a heart-rending expose on the cruelty of whalers (who use explosive-tipped harpoons and electrocuting currents against the great animals). Shocking and repulsing, Heller's adventures will inspire many readers to agree that ""If the oceans are dying in our time, and we kill them... we should have committed a crime so heinous we shall not ever be redeemed.""