num_pages: 240
description: In the 1960s, Farley Mowat was living in the tiny fishing community of Burgeo on the southwest coast of Newfoundland. When an 80-ton fin whale became trapped in a nearby saltwater lagoon, Mowat here was the first chance to study at close range one of the most magnificent animals in creation. Some local villagers thought otherwise, blasting the whale with rifle fire and hacking open her back with a motorboat propeller. Mowat appealed desperately to the authorities, but it was too late-ravaged by an infection resulting from her massive wounds, the whale died. A plea for the end of commercial hunting of the whale, this moving account blends all the tension of the life-and-death struggle for one animal's survival with the drama of man's wanton destruction of life-bearing creatures and the environment itself.
language: English
title: A Whale for the Killing
titlecomplete: A Whale for the Killing (The Farley Mowat Series)
genres: Classics, Nature, History, Environment, Biography, Animals, Science, Memoir, Nonfiction, Canada
ratings_count: 1324
publisher: Stackpole Books