ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE SEARCH FOR WHALE SOUNDS IS A DIFFICULT QUEST THAT TAKES would-be listeners out to sea for weeks or months on end, with much effort and patience. The leading figures in the field who appear in this book were all open, helpful, and eager to consider my nontraditional approach. Thanks especially to Paul Knapp, Scott McVay, Chris Clark, Vincent Janik, Hal Whitehead, Katy Payne, Michel André, Mark Johnson, Peter Tyack, Margaret Lovatt, Sal Cerchio, and particularly Jim Darling, who got official permission for me to join him out in Hawaii aboard his research vessel, the Never Satisfied.

Thanks to musicians Pete Seeger, Paul Winter, Michael Fahres, and George Crumb for taking the time to speak with me about their work and how whales fit into it.

My three main expeditions in the field to make music with whales were made possible through the help of many encouraging individuals. In British Columbia, Jim Nollman and James O’Donnell made the journey a success, even if two of our boats broke down. Ken Ramirez let me into the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago for three days to make music with their belugas in preparation for the journey to Karelia in Russia, which would never have been possible without the persistence of Rauno Lauhakangas and the company of Gari Saarimaki, Anna Koivisto, Aleksandr Velikoselsky, and the Lechki brothers of Kolezhma, who even built a brand-new sauna on Myagostrov Island in honor of our arrival. In Moscow, Aleksandr Agafonov and Roman Belikov were full of enthusiasm and ideas. Olga Filatova shared with me her vast electronic collection of whale science papers, direct from Kamchatka.

The trip to Hawaii would never have been successful without the support of Dan Sythe and Kent Noonan of the Whalesong project. Meagan Jones and Flip Nicklin of the Whaletrust organization also graciously brought me into their world of research and photography. Willy “The Whale” Bennett and Heather Harding brought science and the mystical together. Sheryl O’Day graciously offered her catamaran for a day. Musicians on Maui including Don Lax, Ashana Whalesong, and Lauren Pomerantz shared their thoughts openly on music and whales. Casey Robinson kept my spirits up.

Friends and colleagues who read portions of the book and came up with leads and links from music and science into the world of cetacea include Sylvia van der Woude, Helen Arusoo, Jim Cummings, Doug Quin, Richard Nunns, Mark Fischer, Scott Diel, Michael Pestel, Jay Griffiths, David Abram, Dario Martinelli, Erin Oleson, Daniel Rothenberg, John Brien, Andrea Hodgins-Davis, Outi Tervo, Erich Hoyt, Tecumseh Fitch, Sam Bower, Jenny Toomey, Martin Nweeia, Doug Chadwick, Michelle Makarski, Petri Kuljuntausta, Robert Jürjendal, Ann Warde, Morton Subotnick, Eliza Michalopoulou, Jennifer Jackson, Mark Pilkington, Samone Yust, Ken Jordan, Marilyn Crispell, D. Graham Burnett, Andy Ridinger, Leesa Sklover-Filgate, Bill Rossiter, Christina Coffman, John Wieczorek, Wendy Lindbergh, Jennifer Sahn, Robin Rimbaud, Danielle Cholewiak, Renata Sousa-Lima, Jan Bang, Lisa Walker, Jim Motavalli, Andy Revkin, Bridget Nicholls, and Lawrence Weschler.

Thanks to the New Jersey Institute of Technology for granting me sabbatical leave to work on a project that would not have been possible without such unobstructed time. This is an institution forward-looking enough to accept whale music as a proper subject for study by a member of its humanities department. Wandee Pryor did exemplary background research and preliminary editing. Thanks to Martin Pedanik and Serge Masse for the conception and design of the diagrams.

My agent Kathleen Anderson and editor William Frucht helped a hard-to-describe book find an audience. Nicole Caputo has once again designed an astounding cover. The rest of the staff at Basic Books is by far the best group of people I’ve ever worked with in publishing.

Thanks to my family for all their understanding and support in the months I had to be away from home to work on this project. I hope the stories brought back have been worth the faraway journeys to the mysterious sounds of the deep.