In the Sea of Okhotsk, the views clash in a classic industrial development battle between the needs of man and mammal. Along the Eastern grays' migration path, indigenous cultures contend with environmentalists, each side energized by the certitude that their knowledge is not just scientifically but morally superior. The quandary is not merely academic. Gray whales are dying, in unusual numbers, and we don't know why. Their birth rates are down.
Survivors appear undernourished.
Today, if nature's advocates are not always triumphant, no one questions their right to a place at the political table. It is guaranteed by popular insistence and legislative mandate, enforced by courts of law, chanted by our schoolchildren who fear for the rain forest and endangered creatures. All rights reserved.